Cozumel COVID-19 updates

[Mark IV]

I join many others wonder what Georgia thinks it's doing opening gyms and hair salons?!
.

While I'm largely happy that things are opening up again, I'm also questioning this ^ particular plan, as these are 2 business types that I would think would be particularly susceptible to further transmission.
That being said, I hope to swoop in quick and get a much-needed haircut, and get in a couple workouts, before they change their minds and shut it all down again !!

 

[ggunn]

While I'm largely happy that things are opening up again, I'm also questioning this ^ particular plan, as these are 2 business types that I would think would be particularly susceptible to further transmission.
That being said, I hope to swoop in quick and get a much-needed haircut, and get in a couple workouts, before they change their minds and shut it all down again !!

I wish you guys luck. I hope that Georgia doesn't become a tragic lesson in what not to do.

Maybe I'll go back to the hairstyle I had in my early 20's when it was nearly long enough to reach my elbows.

Just kidding; I don't have nearly enough hair left any more to do that.

 

[DandyDon]

I hope to swoop in quick and get a much-needed haircut, and get in a couple workouts

I need those as well, but I would not risk the exposure even if I had the opportunity. My barber let me know that she was taking care of regular customers in her home. I started with her in her home when she lived on a nearby farm, but I don't want the risk. Isolating as I am, haircuts, showers, and shaves are all pretty optional anyway, altho I do the latter two at times. I limit my exposure to shopping runs and once a week post office pickups while I try to keep my brother's family from leaving their farm.

I hope that Georgia doesn't become a tragic lesson in what not to do.

Isn't that what we expect?

 

[WetInPortland]

From the 24-April noon update:

                                 Previous  ->  Today
Q Roo Confirmed Cases                 461  ->  511
     Social Isolation                 164  ->  179
     Hospitalized                      89  ->  100
     Recovered                        148  ->  161
     Deaths                            60  ->   71
Q Roo Tests pending                    55  ->   51

Cozumel
     Confirmed Cases                   15  ->   18
     Recovered                          6  ->    6
     Deaths                             2  ->    4

Data from SESA Quintana Roo on Twitter

Lots of things happening today, so I'll try to be brief:

• Vehicles with non-QRoo plates prohibited on the roads during Phase 3, unless the driver applies for and receives a formal exception letter (based on qualifying as essential travel)
• No individual, outside-the-home movement in Cozumel Saturday or Sunday. As one person put it, if you run out of tortillas, you're SOL! Exceptions for essential workers (must have badge, uniform, or other proof) and for food deliveries
• China donated several plane loads of PPE to Mexico. The QRoo Governor is returning what the state received to the federal government, "for exceptionally poor quality"
• The federal Deputy Minister of Health shared predictions on total cases and fatalities reported at Health officials say Mexico could see between 6,000 and 8,000 deaths - Riviera Maya News. I will just say that these figures raise more questions than answers. Feel free to post your interpretation in The Pub!

[Edited to add link in last bullet point and remove reference to a future post that I had planned, but decided not to enter.]

 

[JenLoves2Dive]

Hi Scott. I do appreciate your updates, but again, I would caution you about using updates from a non-official facebook page and please wait for the formal announcements. This greatly cuts down on the amount of false information and there's so much right now.
Yes, there are radio broadcasts and interviews, but the formal announcement and details they are still working on, as they stated in the broadcast.
Having lived here for 8 years, I can promise you that even in the local newspapers, we are consistently misinformed. Believe me. lol

I listened to the broadcast and my Spanish speaking resources are confirming to me and telling me straight from the governor's speech, that right now they are only in the process of implementing stricter restrictions of vehicles on the weekend and will be announcing greater restrictions of vehicular movement within the next few days.

As of 3:30pm Cozumel time, there are no FORMAL restrictions put in place yet.
Of course, we all know that can change quickly, right? ;-)

Here's today's formal announcement from the Secretaria de salud Quintana Roo.
Sadly, Cozumel is now +2 deaths - for a total of 4 deaths and 18 positives.
Cancun is now at 378 positives and 43 deaths.
Playa del Carmen is equally concerning with 86 positives and 16 deaths.
TOTAL for Quintana Roo is 511 positives and 71 deaths.

Am still very concerned at the % of the number of males (hombres) infected versus women (mujeres) between the ages of 35 - 54.

If you would like to see the state totals in Mexico you can go to this site:

VERIFICOVID
Verificovid | Vacúnate contra la desinformación

"We are a team of journalists, communicators, designers and doctors who participate in Verificado19s, where we learned and recognized the importance of fighting disinformation from civil society. We monitor the false information that circulates in social networks and digital media, we verify it with a medical team and we generate materials with information about its veracity. We also seek to amplify good practices in individual behavior to reduce contagion."


Thank you. Stay healthy and safe everyone.

 

[ChuckP]

Just how fast things change here. The idea of shutting all movement down was floated around social media last night and spread like wild fire this morning. Lines at Mega were reported, people over 60 not being let in stores. It was a week ago that a Whatsapp message lead to block long lines at Pemex...... I ran out to get essential smokes for the weekend and had to go thru one of the areas where they are stopping cars and motos - three cars pulled over, all wearing masks but all had two people in the car......

It now seems that they've pulled back on this plan but things are certainly fluid.... Per Paula from Cozumel My Cozumel:

Zero mobility implementation will not enter this weekend.

State Governor Carlos Joaquin reported that it is still under analysis along with municipalities how zero mobility will be implemented during the weekends.

The state executive had announced that during the weekend they will not be able to circulate private vehicles of any kind unless they are doing essential activities, as well as restriction of vehicles with foreign or foreign plates.

What if it was emphatic is that this situation of the restriction of vehicle mobility is still analyzed along with the city council of Cozumel, so it will not apply this next weekend and will be informed in time how this decision and action will be implemented Vehicular mobility restriction weekends not to surprise drivers.

For his part the mayor of Cozumel Pedro Joaquín added that the night isolation arrangement that is held on the island from 8 pm to 5 am, will now be from 7 pm to 5 in the morning from this next Sunday...

You may also be interested, the full interview: https://www.facebook.com/241675789688465/posts/846015132587858/

 

[WetInPortland]

Hi Scott. I do appreciate your updates, but again, I would caution you about using updates from a non-official facebook page and please wait for the formal announcements. This greatly cuts down on the amount of false information and there's so much right now.
Yes, there are radio broadcasts and interviews, but the formal announcement and details they are still working on, as they stated in the broadcast.
Having lived here for 8 years, I can promise you that even in the local newspapers, we are consistently misinformed. Believe me. lol

I listened to the broadcast and my Spanish speaking resources are confirming to me and telling me straight from the governor's speech, that right now they are only in the process of implementing stricter restrictions of vehicles on the weekend and will be announcing greater restrictions of vehicular movement within the next few days.

As of 3:30pm Cozumel time, there are no FORMAL restrictions put in place yet.
Of course, we all know that can change quickly, right? ;-)

Here's today's formal announcement from the Secretaria de salud Quintana Roo.
Sadly, Cozumel is now +2 deaths - for a total of 4 deaths and 18 positives.
Cancun is now at 378 positives and 43 deaths.
Playa del Carmen is equally concerning with 86 positives and 16 deaths.
TOTAL for Quintana Roo is 511 positives and 71 deaths.

Am still very concerned at the % of the number of males (hombres) infected versus women (mujeres) between the ages of 35 - 54.

If you would like to see the state totals in Mexico you can go to this site:

VERIFICOVID
Verificovid | Vacúnate contra la desinformación

"We are a team of journalists, communicators, designers and doctors who participate in Verificado19s, where we learned and recognized the importance of fighting disinformation from civil society. We monitor the false information that circulates in social networks and digital media, we verify it with a medical team and we generate materials with information about its veracity. We also seek to amplify good practices in individual behavior to reduce contagion."


Thank you. Stay healthy and safe everyone.


View attachment 582530

For better or worse, I've frequently found that government agencies will post information to Twitter well in advance (sometimes days or weeks) of updating the respective web pages. I'd edited the link in today's post to the official SESA web page, but I'm going to change it back, because the official page only shows the current day's totals. I don't see the history as the Twitter feed shows. Once I do, you can verify that the image from the feed is the same as the one in your post.

The SESA Twitter feed does indeed appear to be the official feed (joined Twitter in 2011), as does the feed from the QRoo State Police Chief. For whatever reason, they have not applied or Twitter has not deemed them worthy of being "Twitter Verified" (blue check-mark on their profile). Good for Verifacad getting the CovidMX account verified on Twitter, but in my very cursory check, I didn't see the historical data on that site, either.

While I didn't site the source, the information on the state's road restrictions came from the the QRoo state Chief of Police's Twitter feed, and I later saw the same information posted by Alerta Cozumel.

I do find -- how shall I put this -- the "communication style" of the government to be frustrating. Had I not gone to the grocery a scant two hours before the road closure debacle, we would have had some problems. When I saw the news of movement restrictions in Cozumel this weekend, I didn't immediately post it here. I did IMMEDIATELY go to the grocery, as I was trying to be good and only go once per week, and my day is (was? is?) Saturday. When the news appeared to be consistent when I returned, *then* I posted it here. But my Spanish is not yet to a level where I can get information from an original source. Even then, from I what understand, the "communication style" of the government original sources is to leave some things open to interpretation!

I'm not a professional journalist; this is hopefully a way for some of the forum members to stay connected to the island until they can return. It also gives me something to do. Somewhere in the T's & C's of ScubaBoard, I think there's something about not making any life or death decisions based on anything here. And *especially* not from any thing that I post!

 

[WetInPortland]

Just how fast things change here. The idea of shutting all movement down was floated around social media last night and spread like wild fire this morning. Lines at Mega were reported, people over 60 not being let in stores

There was a line at Mega when I went around noon, because they were checking everyone's temperature, and they were doing a cart run, which blocked the escalator. And they've marked the floor to keep everyone ~2 meters apart while waiting, so the line of about 10 people extended into the parking gargage. Once inside, the store wasn't crowded at all.

Chedraui did question my age, but I did my best "Nelly" impression and told the young man, "cincuenta y ocho!" (I'm sure the retro-reflective motorcycle vest and do-rag helped.)

 

[ChuckP]

For better or worse, I've frequently found that government agencies will post information to Twitter well in advance (sometimes days or weeks) of updating the respective web pages. I'd edited the link in today's post to the official SESA web page, but I'm going to change it back, because the official page only shows the current day's totals. I don't see the history as the Twitter feed shows. Once I do, you can verify that the image from the feed is the same as the one in your post.

The SESA Twitter feed does indeed appear to be the official feed (joined Twitter in 2011), as does the feed from the QRoo State Police Chief. For whatever reason, they have not applied or Twitter has not deemed them worthy of being "Twitter Verified" (blue check-mark on their profile). Good for Verifacad getting the CovidMX account verified on Twitter, but in my very cursory check, I didn't see the historical data on that site, either.

While I didn't site the source, the information on the state's road restrictions came from the the QRoo state Chief of Police's Twitter feed, and I later saw the same information posted by Alerta Cozumel.

I do find -- how shall I put this -- the "communication style" of the government to be frustrating. Had I not gone to the grocery a scant two hours before the road closure debacle, we would have had some problems. When I saw the news of movement restrictions in Cozumel this weekend, I didn't immediately post it here. I did IMMEDIATELY go to the grocery, as I was trying to be good and only go once per week, and my day is (was? is?) Saturday. When the news appeared to be consistent when I returned, *then* I posted it here. But my Spanish is not yet to a level where I can get information from an original source. Even then, from I what understand, the "communication style" of the government original sources is to leave some things open to interpretation!

I'm not a professional journalist; this is hopefully a way for some of the forum members to stay connected to the island until they can return. It also gives me something to do. Somewhere in the T's & C's of ScubaBoard, I think there's something about not making any life or death decisions based on anything here. And *especially* not from any thing that I post!

If you ever figure out how to get good consistent info here, bottle it and sell it - you’ll be rich!!

I seen a post on Facebook late last night about cutting off travel, it was like 11pm or so - thought oh ****. It took awhile for it to get going today but there were people confirming it from all directions but then that news conference at noon and it all changed and it wasn’t spread around at all.

I agree, I wish there was more planning, they’ve said all along that it isn’t official if it isn’t on Pedros page - it’s just those of us lacking language skills have to wait for translation and sometimes that isn’t even correct - our fault for lack of language skills.

I like the way you post cause it does include previous days but I also like to see where Playa and Cancun are at too.

Fingers crossed that we are getting two week old info And this will be over soon!!

 

[WetInPortland]

If you ever figure out how to get good consistent info here, bottle it and sell it - you’ll be rich!!

The thing that I don't get, is that these are smart people. @JenLoves2Dive makes the good point that, ideally, journalistically, one should wait for the official statement. The problem is that, if one does, one will not infrequently find themselves screwed. So when invalid information comes out, one's natural reaction is, "Yeah, that sounds like something the government would do." Case in point - the road closures. Then came the [false] gas station closures. Then came today's on again, off again (it's under consideration) weekend movement restrictions. It's easy to get into a, "Well, gee, I hope that's not true, but I can't afford to take the chance", mindset. The government keeps kindling the problem with the lurching implementations.

I wonder if this doesn't percolate into other behaviors. Vehicle registration renewals started on 2-Jan, and had to be completed by 31-Mar. In January there were *massive* lines of people renewing their registrations. This ignorant estadounidense said, nah, I'll wait. I drove past one day in mid-February, saw there were minimal lines, and was in and out in 15 minutes. I have to wonder if all the people standing in line in January were thinking, "I have to do this now before something suddenly changes." And so, it's a "culture" thing. One thing for sure, it's never boring!