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With the end of the month approaching and the coronavirus still pervasive across the state, Governor Ivey has decided to extend the Safer at Home order and the mask mandate. The one addition she made to the order was that children from 2nd grade up will have to wear masks in school. She extended both orders until August 31st.
The Virus In Alabama
Covid-19 has continued to slam Alabama. The past 24 hours saw over 1,400 new cases of the virus and 47 deaths. The state has added over 1,000 cases a day for the past several weeks.
Mobile County has been one of the worst-hit counties in the state. Locally we have seen over 7,600 cases of Covid-19 and 180 deaths. Local hospitals, which only have 1,740 staffed hospital beds, are being overrun with patients.
The lack of hospital space is one of the biggest threats from the coronavirus. While the virus itself has a death rate of around 4%, the high number of hospitalizations are clogging the system. This puts victims of other incidents, such as car wrecks, heart attacks, and gunshot wounds at risk of not having a spot in the ER.
The Amended Order
The orders stayed largely the same. The big exception was adding schools to the list of places that require a mask. Some students are heading back to classrooms as early as next week. Many schools will have to change their guidelines thanks to these new orders. The issue of schooling has caused great anxiety among parents and teachers alike.
There has been much debate about the role schools will play in spreading the virus. Studies have shown that children between the ages of 10-19 spread the virus just as easily as adults. Though children have not been as heavily affected by the virus yet, it is important to remember that most schools closed before the virus really took off in the spring.
The infectiousness of the disease in children is about to be put to the test. Many schools are offering remote learning options for children as a way to combat the issue. Mobile County has decided the first quarter of the year will be remote learning only.
How Much Longer?
With another extension of the Safer At Home order and now the mask mandate as well, there appears to be no end in sight to this pandemic. Schools could be the next super spreader event that explodes cases even higher after they had leveled off the past few days. Counting on children to prevent the spread of a disease that has infected professional doctors does not seem like a recipe for success.
We may be in this for the long haul. A vaccine could be the only way out of this nightmare at this point. While there has been positive news on that front, polls are showing that many people are opposed to taking a vaccine. Conspiracy theories abound about alternative agendas behind the vaccines. We will not be able to achieve herd immunity if enough people do not take the vaccine.
With all of these problems staring us in the face, Governor Ivey was correct in extending the Safer at Home order and the mask mandate.