[UrbanWarrior]

Ah shit I'm sorry man. That's far more rough than what I'm dealing with.

I actually just submitted my last final of the year. Feels like a small moon just evaporated off my back.



Now this is how I feel (my classes are the ship in the middle. In the previous one, my classes were the three ships beating on the lil one [me])

 

[googspecial]

My College has offered students to not receive a GPA for classes this semester. Instead can get a "Credit Received" or "Credit Not Received". This is gonna help me as I've also been struggling with at home learning and have been unable to maintain my 4.0. I'll still be passing all my classes, so luckily won't have to get a CNR for any and retake them.

 

[UrbanWarrior]

Yeah U of C offered that as well. I still had to drop a class though cause I was already behind. Sacrificing one to do well in all the others isn't a bad trade off, given the circumstances. I chose to go with the GPA still though, rather than the CR/CNR.

 

[Sky of Blue]

@UrbanWarrior . The feds announced student relief today. $1250 per month until the fall. More if you meet other criteria. Starts May 1st

 

[darwink]

@UrbanWarrior . The feds announced student relief today. $1250 per month until the fall. More if you meet other criteria. Starts May 1st

If approved by Parliament. I don’t see the money flowing until the second week of May in my crystal ball.

 

[UrbanWarrior]

There's pretty much no chance it won't be approved by parliament. The conservatives have no way, and they're the only idiots (with a few in the Bloc) who would oppose it.

 

[Alex_YYC]

I'm sure everyone has seen the Alberta case numbers spiking. From what I've read it's because Alberta has increased the amount of testing, and they're catching more cases that might not have been caught. It makes sense to me, but also makes me wonder about the other provinces and how many of them have people out there with the virus but don't realize it?

Is this something where Alberta numbers spike, but then later drop quickly because the increased positive cases are discovered and put into isolation that might have otherwise infected others?

Also, does anyone have any ideas on why Calgary has so many more cases than Edmonton and the rest of the province?

 

[Sky of Blue]

Interesting that USA has now shown deaths positive for Corvid 19 going back to January, possibly infected in December. Interesting in that Fort McMurray has a lot of work related travel to and from China until recently. A huge number of people here think it swept through town around Christmas/NewYears. So many people sickest they’ve ever been and lots of pneumonia cases and hospitalization.

 

[Sky of Blue]

Our average age here in town is about 31. And almost no old/frail people as we have no long term care homes. So I could see it going through without a noticeable death spike.

 

[JonnyCanuck]

I'm sure everyone has seen the Alberta case numbers spiking. From what I've read it's because Alberta has increased the amount of testing, and they're catching more cases that might not have been caught. It makes sense to me, but also makes me wonder about the other provinces and how many of them have people out there with the virus but don't realize it?

Is this something where Alberta numbers spike, but then later drop quickly because the increased positive cases are discovered and put into isolation that might have otherwise infected others?

Also, does anyone have any ideas on why Calgary has so many more cases than Edmonton and the rest of the province?

Calgary has a lot more international travel than Edmonton as it is a transportation hub for Western Canada. Between January and the end of March, there would have been tens of thousands of people coming in from Asia, Europe, the U.S. etc. Also, the Cargill numbers are added to the Calgary zone. That was over 500 cases alone.
As for whether the numbers are going to spike from further testing, I don't think there is good data yet. How long does an asymptomatic person harbour the virus for? How long do they go around infecting people unsuspectingly particularly now that physical distancing has been in vogue for at least a month? ?

This whole notion that there is this shadow group of people walking around with the virus yet showing no symptoms is a mystery. Yet there is another group of people that have very clear symptoms, get very sick and some die from it.
We all have respiratory systems. I get it that some people have weakened immune systems and are more at risk, or have been life-long smokers. Those are the that ones that are being hospitalized. But to be at one end of the spectrum or the other (no ill effects to dying) ?

 

[Surrealplaces]

Alberta a new record number of cases today. Much of the spike is for sure from expanded testing, but it makes you wonder if the spike in numbers is all related to expanded testing? Part of it maybe is also a case of the virus is simply spreading.

We seem to be headed toward a Quebec type situation. Hopefully we'll see the numbers go down in the next few days.

 

[Stephen Ave]

It’s probably a combination of both, the expanded testing of course will bring about new cases, but I really believe that Calgary already has a lot more cases than The other prairie cities and regions due to it being a much larger international travel hub. Expanded testing is simply bringing out more numbers that were already there.
I wouldn’t be surprised if other regions around Canada have higher numbers as well but are people with mild cold symptoms who are staying home and isolating, and the numbers aren’t getting picked up.

 

[darwink]

It’s probably a combination of both, the expanded testing of course will bring about new cases, but I really believe that Calgary already has a lot more cases than The other prairie cities and regions due to it being a much larger international travel hub. Expanded testing is simply bringing out more numbers that were already there.
I wouldn’t be surprised if other regions around Canada have higher numbers as well but are people with mild cold symptoms who are staying home and isolating, and the numbers aren’t getting picked up.

Sadly the only accurate measure for comparisons is likely ICU admissions and deaths. Even then, statistically analysis is picking up significant non-hospital death spikes in the UK and Sweden showing maybe only half of COVID-19 deaths are in hospital.

 

[ByeByeBaby]

The positive rate has been climbing in testing; the most recent number is sky-high, although that could be incomplete data. In any case, it's been rising over the past few weeks. In general, I would think that as testing is expanded, if the disease is not spreading, that the positive rate would drop. It would only rise if either there are more people in the population, or if you were previously testing people who were less likely to have the disease than the new groups added for testing. (This is possible -- if you had one test and had to choose between a person who just arrived from NYC who was sneezing and fatigued versus a senior care worker with no symptoms; just quarantine the first person and test the second one.)

I suspect that if Cargill had been shut down a week earlier when people began testing positive, we'd be in a decline. It's not like they would have made less money - there would still be a two week shutdown, just hundreds fewer illnesses and deaths.

Sadly the only accurate measure for comparisons is likely ICU admissions and deaths. Even then, statistically analysis is picking up significant non-hospital death spikes in the UK and Sweden showing maybe only half of COVID-19 deaths are in hospital.

Even this isn't entirely the case -- some of the spike in deaths is because people are avoiding going to the hospital for non-COVID problems because they are worried about getting it and/or assuming the hospital is swamped. So some of these are strokes, heart attacks and the like that are only indirectly COVID-19 related.

 

[Silence&Motion]

AHS now has positive test rates broken down by region. Rates are mostly flat except for Calgary and the South Zone. Those spikes are clearly related to the two meat processing plants in High River (Calgary Zone) and Brooks (South Zone). On one hand, it's good to know that the outbreaks are limited to a couple specific places. On the other hand, it goes to show you how outbreaks can spike dramatically and seemingly out of nowhere any place where social distancing is not being enforced.