Ready, Set......GO!

 

STATUS YELLOW, STATUS ORANGE AND A THREE LAYER MASK IN ALL PUBLIC SPACES:

This is not fun. Over 4,299 cases in Canada today. The highest number of new cases in Ontario ever counted during this pandemic so far.

In Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (WDG) public health region, sixty percent of these cases occurred as a result of small, private gatherings indoors. Theses small gatherings are driving the second surge of COVID-19 across the country.

In the WDG region:

1/ The weekly incidence rate has climbed to 26.9/100,000 from 17.9/100,000 last week. That is status yellow

2/ The percent positivity, which is the percentage of positive tests out of all the tests done in a day has climbed from 1.2% to 1.7%. Also status yellow.

3/ The R value or the reproductive value which is the number of people that an infected person can transmit the virus to has increased from 1.2 to 1.37. Sorry to point this out but our R value now meets the criteria for status orange.

Here's the real kicker. Over the past 7 days, there were on average over 1,300 individuals with COVID-19 being treated in Canadian hospitals, including almost 250 in critical care with an average of 51 deaths reported each day.

Fifty-one people.

I will be blunt. If you are gathering indoors in someone's house without wearing masks or keeping your distance from folks who are not in your household bubble, you are contributing to the deaths of 51 people a day. Three hundred and fifty people a week.

Toronto and all of Manitoba are now in status Red. Bars restaurants and gyms closed.

I will be blunt. If you are gathering indoors in someone's house without wearing masks or keeping your distance from folks who are not in your household bubble, you are contributing to the loss of thousands of jobs and small businesses across this province.

You are responsible.

Please, Please, Please wear a mask. Avoid small gatherings. Put your fellow man and your health first, ahead of that party or that family gathering.

Make it a three layered mask. Put a layer of non-woven polypropylene in between the two cloth layers of your material mask. Sheets of polypropylene can be purchased at craft stores. A piece of a polypropylene from a reusable grocery bag works too. You can also use a folded paper towel or a coffee filter. Don't use plastic films or pieces of non-breathable plastic.

The mask that I am wearing in this image has a thin piece of polypropylene in the middle. I wore this during a 30 min power walk today just to be sure it did not interfere with my breathing. It did not. You do not need to wear a mask when you are outside walking, hiking, running or biking. I did this to prove to myself that the polypropylene layer would not make me winded. It did not.

Here is the beauty of this polypropylene layer: It makes your cloth mask almost as effective at keeping out the tiniest of particles, including viruses, as an N 95 mask. The N 95, if you remember, is used by intensive care staff when they are intubating a patient with COVID 19 when the patient's respiratory droplets are hanging everywhere in the air. The N95 dramatically reduces the risk of the wearer breathing in COVID 19. That's what this little layer of polypropylene could do for you.

Two layers continue to be beneficial in most public spaces where the space is big, well ventilated and physical distancing is adhered to, like your grocery store.

Wear a mask, keep your distance. The alternative is a strict two week lockdown before Christmas. Man, that would be incredibly awful. So many retailers rely on our pre-Christmas purchases. Do it for them and their livelihoods and for all the beautiful restaurant, bar and gym owners. We love you guys,

We have a choice to make. Is that party, that couple of hours of fun worth the lives of so many people? It is just NOT. Does anyone disagree with that? Of course not.

Come on folks, let's do this right!

Anne-Marie

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PS. If there are any mask makers out there who are adding a third layer, I am willing to purchase one thousand in order to make them available to folks that do not have the means or capacity to get one of these masks. That's a direct challenge. Ready, set....GO!

Find a good three layer mask here:

https://www.hidesinhand.com/

For non-Facebook users, you can find this post here:

https://braceletofhope.blogspot.com/

Check out a great place for mental health support here:

https://familyserviceguelph.on.ca/

For local assistance with anxiety and depression:

www.here4help.ca

CMHA WW Website: www.cmhaww.ca

Here 24/7 at 1-844-HERE-247 or www.here247.ca.

And for post-secondary students, Good2Talk

https://good2talk.ca/