What will be with sukkos?

amother

Magenta

Fri, Aug 14 2020, 12:29 pm

amother [ Peach ] wrote:

All people I associate with have been back to normal life so it’s not an issue. Upstate is full of people mingling and all there are no new cases. This all has turned completely political at this point! Wake up and smell the toses

Yes, we will build our sukkah and eat in it! We will invite some guests who need a place for yomtov. We were all sick on pesach and stayed home alone then.
Succos?? Of course we’re back to normal!! We’ve been to weddings, Sheva brochos, kids in camp... bH for months no one is sick.
Honestly, aren’t you sending your kids back to school? Things are back to normal...
Not in ey yet, but in the USA for sure!

amother

Wheat

Fri, Aug 14 2020, 12:33 pm

amother [ Peach ] wrote:

FYI I live upstate, and this is not true at all in my community.

We are still socially distancing, which is a good thing because there are still new positive cases turning up. Since we're socially distancing, it means maybe 1 affected family has to quarantine as a result of a positive case, not the entire kehillah.

This is critical if we want our kids in school consistently this fall.

I think we have to decide which is more important: school or communal things like sukkos/simchas torah. My community is committed to reopening our schools and keeping them open to the maximum extent possible.

amother

Peach

Fri, Aug 14 2020, 12:35 pm

amother [ Wheat ] wrote:

I’m so glad ur part of the minority. Just FYI if you test 300 people now most will have the flu also the covid tests are so unreliable proven many times of false positives even the governer of Ohio proved it. People are getting sick but not deathly sick they don’t need oxygen or a doctor.

amother

Wheat

Fri, Aug 14 2020, 12:40 pm

amother [ Peach ] wrote:

I'm not sure what tests Ohio is using; I don't believe NYS is using the same tests, and if folks are social distancing then it's less likely people will get sick with anything that looks like COVID to require testing, and even if they test positive, it will require fewer other people to get tested as well..avoiding any discussion of bad batches of testing (which weren't relevant to NYS to my knowledge).

Positive COVID cases will require shutting schools down and families quarantining, not being able to go to work to pay their bills, and for sure not going anywhere heaven forbid for shabbos or yomim tovim.

Our community wants as much normalcy as possible as soon as possible, and that means being strict now about some things in order to meikel sooner about others.

amother

Peach

Fri, Aug 14 2020, 12:46 pm

amother [ Wheat ] wrote:

Please go read up what happened in Florida labs. And do ur research false positives in NY. There’s lots of bad tests all over. What about the story of a nurse sending an empty test to the lab came back positive she never even swabbed herself.

amother

Taupe

Fri, Aug 14 2020, 12:49 pm

amother [ Magenta ] wrote:

No, in my part of the US (New Jersey) we are still very careful. We will build our sukkah and eat in it...the rest, no.

I could see how families might register for time slots to use the shul sukkah, very much the way minyan is being done in shifts.

amother

Wheat

Fri, Aug 14 2020, 12:54 pm

amother [ Peach ] wrote:

I have, and the stuff in FL isn't relevant to NYS and there is no evidence of a systemic issue of false positives or sabotage or malpractice in NYS.

And regardless, if a positive COVID test will require compliance with DOH including quarantines and shutting down schools, certainly to a broader extent if more of those involved are deemed to have had a reasonable amount of contact and didn't follow SD protocols and wearing masks, then following those protocols will at a minimum protect the community from completely shutting down over a positive test case, and if for the sake of this argument, it were a false positive, then it would minimize the impact on others of a false positive test.

amother

Peach

Fri, Aug 14 2020, 1:01 pm

amother [ Wheat ] wrote:

Schools and daycamps have been going great in upstate ny, monsey, bp, willi.

amother

Wheat

Fri, Aug 14 2020, 1:06 pm

amother [ Peach ] wrote:

Schools and daycamps have been going great in upstate ny, monsey, bp, willi.

I can speak to 1 daycamp and 1 daycare in upstate ny.

Yes, it went really well because we have strictly followed social distancing and masking requirements, screening requirements, testing and reporting requirements, and contact tracing requirements.

There have been positive cases, but they have been well controlled having minimal impact and requiring no closures to date. BH.

My employer has had continued COVID cases and necessary quarantines, but these have been greatly minimized in my location due to social distancing and mask wearing, screening, testing, report, and contact tracing. This has not been minimized at our site in Idaho where nobody gives a hoot or at another site in NYS where some work groups don't give a hoot, and entire portions of our essential business have recently been shutdown for 2-4 weeks or longer, hurting a lot of people. This also includes 1-2 folks in the ICU. Any is too many.

Stay socially distant, follow the protocols, stay open.

Mama Bear

Fri, Aug 14 2020, 1:08 pm

You can't compare Pesach to succos. During Pesach every other person was sick and the hospitals were bursting at the seams. Covid was literally hovering in the air. It was a sakanah mamash. There was a shelter in place order. Bh there is no shelter in place order now, we have passed Phase 4 and everything has opened again with protocols. I fail to see why families can't be together, provided they're not traveling over from high risk areas with active covid from where quarantine is required. And if you can go to shul on RH and YK, you can go to a communal sukkah too. But if individuals want to impose their own restrictions bc they're afraid, kol hakavod! The answer to your initial question is that it's okay to have guests over for succos or go to others to eat, depending on your comfort level. It's not as scary as it was on pesach bh.

However it's still too early to tell. HaShem should help us all that things should stay quiet. WHo knows what'll be from now til succos?!

amother

Peach

Fri, Aug 14 2020, 1:09 pm

amother [ Wheat ] wrote:

I can speak to 1 daycamp and 1 daycare in upstate ny.

Yes, it went really well because we have strictly followed social distancing and masking requirements, screening requirements, testing and reporting requirements, and contact tracing requirements.

There have been positive cases, but they have been well controlled having minimal impact and requiring no closures to date. BH.

My employer has had continued COVID cases and necessary quarantines, but these have been greatly minimized in my location due to social distancing and mask wearing, screening, testing, report, and contact tracing. This has not been minimized at our site in Idaho where nobody gives a hoot or at another site in NYS where some work groups don't give a hoot, and entire portions of our essential business have recently been shutdown for 2-4 weeks or longer, hurting a lot of people.

Stay socially distant, follow the protocols, stay open.

I’m in colony that has 50 family’s plus guest constantly and 300 kids+ no social distance all normal like every year and nothing new. Anyone not feeling well stayed in or at home it’s all been good.

amother

Wheat

Fri, Aug 14 2020, 1:21 pm

Mama Bear wrote:

If the Cohen family(made up name) in my OOT community that is low risk decides to gather downstate (where like you said things are reopened) with all their married siblings and parents and all the kids over sukkos, maybe some folks from other places, you know, 100 of your closest family and a couple bochurim with no where to go Wink

....and then they come back to the community, send their kids to school (their kids are in 5 grades through out K-8 and mom is a teacher at the school too, and they carpool with the Kleins--another 3 kids)..and then they find out that Uncle Moishy and his bochur roommate who came in from California tested positive and was symptomatic shortly thereafter, that entire family will need to quarantine and be tested and will have put an entire school at great risk for shutting town or getting sick. The school will at a minimum have to close down 1-2 days to get full guidance from DOH and do initial contact tracing as well as do a deep clean even if they can determine it's localized.

People downstate need to stop assuming that they live in land with a large stone wall and a locked gate. This is a small world and 1 weak link can bring a lot of stuff down right now, at worst, killing someone, and at best, shutting down schools and forcing people to lose even more income, forcing people to subject young children to covid tests (repeatedly), etc. and giving lots of a people an unnecessary headache.

We can't argue that camp was so necessary and schools are so necessary that closing them is antisemitism and blocking our religious observance when we aren't doing what we need to do to keep them open safely and consistently in this environment. And schools in my region who tried to open in the summer even with protocols had to shutdown...

I mean we could argue my region might be more at risk for new COVID cases and affect downstate family members and since DOH doesn't view antibodies as anything one can use to rule out precautionary quarantine, the downstate contingent of Cohens will also be all shut down and have to notify everyone they were in contact with in the last 2 weeks before symptoms/testing positive.

If someone has a headache after reading this, join the club. I also do. Who needs this? Why not find a way to be b'simchah about the yomim tovim without risking chaos at best and making people sick at worst?