Coronavirus
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movetheboat
Well-Known Angler
Ben Carson and the Florida gov POSITIVE!!!!
Rut-roh!! Looks like the Swedish Bikini Tanning Team won't be competing this year since their "Let It Go" COVID strategy has bombed...
Sweden's light-touch strategy during the first wave of the pandemic has yielded mixed results | Jonathan Nackstrand/Getty Images
BY CHARLIE DUXBURY
Voiced by Amazon Polly
STOCKHOLM — As it becomes clear that a second wave of COVID-19 is hitting lockdown holdout Sweden hard, debate in the country has moved to a new question: Whose fault is it?
This week, blame flew in at least three directions.
Some experts blamed the government, saying its light-touch strategy was too soft and had allowed the pandemic to take hold again.
The government pushed back, saying current rules were appropriate — and were being tightened where necessary. It blamed citizens for not following the rules already in place.
Meanwhile, on the streets of Stockholm, citizens blamed their leaders, saying the current rules sent mixed messages, making them hard to follow.
“It’s complicated,” said Gudrun Richter, who runs a café in the city center. “They tell people not to go out and eat, but restaurants are allowed to stay open; they tell people not to go shopping, but the malls are still open as normal.”
Since the pandemic hit Europe in March, Sweden has been in sharp focus globally, as restriction-weary populations and leaders elsewhere have wondered if Stockholm’s rejection of lockdown — schools, businesses and borders were left open — offered a viable option.
Speaking at POLITICO's Health Care Summit on Wednesday, Sweden’s Health Minister Lena Hallengren said she was surprised by the attention her country’s pandemic management plans have received. Being unique in any particular way was never the intention, Hallengren said. Instead, policymakers had been guided by the country’s scientists.
She also sought to put to bed one myth in particular. “We never had this kind of ‘herd immunity’ in our strategy,” the minister said, adding that although there was no lockdown, "we did manage to change ... our everyday life radically."
In July, Chief Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said that Sweden’s approach had been as effective as a lockdown, and that allowing a slow spread of disease likely meant immunity in Sweden would be higher than elsewhere.
Sweden should therefore ride out a second wave better than nearby Finland and Norway, which dodged the first wave, he argued.
With such immunity now elusive, and Finland in particular seeing only a very limited rise in cases now, that argument has faded.
The 14-day cumulative number of cases of COVID-19 in Sweden roughly doubled to 557 per 100,000 people on November 17 from 272 on November 3.
Hospitalizations are rising sharply, and this week intensive care nurses at two of the Stockholm region’s hospitals were moved back to the same 12-hour shifts they worked during the first wave of the pandemic in the spring.
“It’s like a nightmare which is returning,” intensive care nurse Katja Fogelberg told Swedish public service radio.
People working in the health care sector "are more tired this time," Hallengren said Wednesday.
The concern now is that the Nordic country could be on the same trajectory as the likes of the Czech Republic, Austria and Luxembourg, which are currently seeing a 14-day cumulative number of cases of over 1,000 per 100,000 people.
On Monday, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven urged Swedes to “stop looking for excuses” to ignore the rules.
He said that from November 24, public gatherings would be limited to eight people in the latest in a series of tougher measures rolled out to reduce contact between citizens.
Current regional guidance for Stockholm — in place since October 29 — already largely bans mixing between households, but while strict, the guidelines are also voluntary.
This week in the city there were many signs that the guidelines were being flouted
Group sports for people over the age of 15 are banned, but on Sunday, semi-organized games of football involving more than a dozen adult players could be seen taking place on public pitches such as at Blackeberg on the western outskirts.
In Stockholm city center on Wednesday, restaurants, cafés and gyms were still all open and being widely used. Behind the plate glass window of a municipal building, a group of public sector workers were sitting together on sofas talking, while colleagues played table tennis nearby.
“Do your duty and take your responsibility,” Löfven said on Monday. “Don't go to the gym, don’t go to the library, don’t have parties; postpone it all,” he said.
Some experts say this kind of appeal is not enough and the government should have acted more decisively.
In a recent opinion piece, 26 researchers and doctors listed rules that should be tightened. They said that people who live with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 should be forced to quarantine for longer than the current seven days and that this should include children.
They said masks should also be required in public spaces, which they currently are not.
Opposition lawmakers have swung behind this line, with the leader of the Moderate Party, Ulf Kristersson, on Wednesday demanding that Löfven explain Sweden’s exceptionalism on face masks.
That call brought the Moderates in line with the far right Sweden Democrats, whose leader Jimmie Åkesson has called for Tegnell to be replaced.
From behind her counter in central Stockholm, mask-free café worker Richter served mask-free customers.
Despite the bleak outlook, she said she still hoped that Sweden’s strategy would be enough to keep a lid on the pandemic until a vaccine arrives. “I don’t normally like injections, but this one I’m looking forward to,” she said.
Sarah Wheaton and Carlo Martuscelli contributed to this article.
Discontent rises in Sweden as coronavirus cases spike
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven urged Swedes to ‘stop looking for excuses’ to ignore COVID-19 rules.
Sweden's light-touch strategy during the first wave of the pandemic has yielded mixed results | Jonathan Nackstrand/Getty Images
BY CHARLIE DUXBURY
Voiced by Amazon Polly
STOCKHOLM — As it becomes clear that a second wave of COVID-19 is hitting lockdown holdout Sweden hard, debate in the country has moved to a new question: Whose fault is it?
This week, blame flew in at least three directions.
Some experts blamed the government, saying its light-touch strategy was too soft and had allowed the pandemic to take hold again.
The government pushed back, saying current rules were appropriate — and were being tightened where necessary. It blamed citizens for not following the rules already in place.
Meanwhile, on the streets of Stockholm, citizens blamed their leaders, saying the current rules sent mixed messages, making them hard to follow.
“It’s complicated,” said Gudrun Richter, who runs a café in the city center. “They tell people not to go out and eat, but restaurants are allowed to stay open; they tell people not to go shopping, but the malls are still open as normal.”
Since the pandemic hit Europe in March, Sweden has been in sharp focus globally, as restriction-weary populations and leaders elsewhere have wondered if Stockholm’s rejection of lockdown — schools, businesses and borders were left open — offered a viable option.
Cases rising
Results have been mixed. After a calm start, death rates in Sweden rose to among the worst in Europe before falling away in the summer.Speaking at POLITICO's Health Care Summit on Wednesday, Sweden’s Health Minister Lena Hallengren said she was surprised by the attention her country’s pandemic management plans have received. Being unique in any particular way was never the intention, Hallengren said. Instead, policymakers had been guided by the country’s scientists.
She also sought to put to bed one myth in particular. “We never had this kind of ‘herd immunity’ in our strategy,” the minister said, adding that although there was no lockdown, "we did manage to change ... our everyday life radically."
In July, Chief Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said that Sweden’s approach had been as effective as a lockdown, and that allowing a slow spread of disease likely meant immunity in Sweden would be higher than elsewhere.
Sweden should therefore ride out a second wave better than nearby Finland and Norway, which dodged the first wave, he argued.
With such immunity now elusive, and Finland in particular seeing only a very limited rise in cases now, that argument has faded.
The 14-day cumulative number of cases of COVID-19 in Sweden roughly doubled to 557 per 100,000 people on November 17 from 272 on November 3.
Hospitalizations are rising sharply, and this week intensive care nurses at two of the Stockholm region’s hospitals were moved back to the same 12-hour shifts they worked during the first wave of the pandemic in the spring.
“It’s like a nightmare which is returning,” intensive care nurse Katja Fogelberg told Swedish public service radio.
People working in the health care sector "are more tired this time," Hallengren said Wednesday.
The concern now is that the Nordic country could be on the same trajectory as the likes of the Czech Republic, Austria and Luxembourg, which are currently seeing a 14-day cumulative number of cases of over 1,000 per 100,000 people.
On Monday, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven urged Swedes to “stop looking for excuses” to ignore the rules.
He said that from November 24, public gatherings would be limited to eight people in the latest in a series of tougher measures rolled out to reduce contact between citizens.
Current regional guidance for Stockholm — in place since October 29 — already largely bans mixing between households, but while strict, the guidelines are also voluntary.
This week in the city there were many signs that the guidelines were being flouted
Group sports for people over the age of 15 are banned, but on Sunday, semi-organized games of football involving more than a dozen adult players could be seen taking place on public pitches such as at Blackeberg on the western outskirts.
In Stockholm city center on Wednesday, restaurants, cafés and gyms were still all open and being widely used. Behind the plate glass window of a municipal building, a group of public sector workers were sitting together on sofas talking, while colleagues played table tennis nearby.
'Do your duty'
This is not the response Löfven and Tegnell are looking for, and they say it risks undermining the whole Swedish strategy.“Do your duty and take your responsibility,” Löfven said on Monday. “Don't go to the gym, don’t go to the library, don’t have parties; postpone it all,” he said.
Some experts say this kind of appeal is not enough and the government should have acted more decisively.
In a recent opinion piece, 26 researchers and doctors listed rules that should be tightened. They said that people who live with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 should be forced to quarantine for longer than the current seven days and that this should include children.
They said masks should also be required in public spaces, which they currently are not.
Opposition lawmakers have swung behind this line, with the leader of the Moderate Party, Ulf Kristersson, on Wednesday demanding that Löfven explain Sweden’s exceptionalism on face masks.
That call brought the Moderates in line with the far right Sweden Democrats, whose leader Jimmie Åkesson has called for Tegnell to be replaced.
From behind her counter in central Stockholm, mask-free café worker Richter served mask-free customers.
Despite the bleak outlook, she said she still hoped that Sweden’s strategy would be enough to keep a lid on the pandemic until a vaccine arrives. “I don’t normally like injections, but this one I’m looking forward to,” she said.
Sarah Wheaton and Carlo Martuscelli contributed to this article.
Chinacat
Well-Known Angler
Gotcha
Got to hope the Maple Syrup Sales will be strong in the spring, looks like Vermont Ski Season is going to be severely impacted...
Mad River Glen in 2016. This year, the ski area had seen strong season pass sales before the state announced new quarantine guidelines. Credit...Caleb Kenna for The New York Times
By Biddle Duke
Travel and travel planning are being disrupted by the worldwide spread of the coronavirus. For the latest updates, read The New York Times’s Covid-19 coverage here.
In some ways, it looked as though the pandemic could be good for Vermont’s ski season. With international destinations out of reach and domestic air travel feeling risky, the state had the biggest ski market in the nation — New York and the Northeast corridor — at its doorstep.
“For the very first time Vermont and New England have access to the full Northeast market share,” said Brian Maggiotto, general manager at the Inn at Manchester in southern Vermont. “And with many people writing off the idea of getting on a plane, this gives Vermont access to the highest concentration of skiers within a drive’s distance.”
The state’s 20 alpine and 30 cross-country ski destinations were feeling optimistic, despite a warm fall that had already pushed back some area’s opening days for lack of snow.
The Inn at Manchester in southern Vermont saw a flow of cancellations after the Vermont governor announced new quarantine rules. Credit...Christine Glade Photography
Then last week, Gov. Phil Scott announced newly tightened quarantine rules for anyone visiting the state. They either had to commit to a 14-day quarantine (at home or in state), or a quarantine of seven days followed by a negative Covid-19 test.
Vermont’s travel guidelines didn’t mark that big a shift. The most significant change was that the state suspended the use of a color-coded system that assigned counties in the Northeast a color from green to red based on their number of cases of the coronavirus per million people. There was a time when a number of counties — although quite few — had virus case counts that were acceptable for travel to Vermont without quarantine. But now almost all of the Northeast was red.
But the governor’s announcement last Tuesday of virus-containment measures, combined with a huge spike in cases across the Northeast, triggered a wave of cancellations at hotels and inns and fear among tourism-dependent businesses that travelers would shun Vermont this winter because of the pandemic.
“There’s been a pretty consistent flow of cancellations since that day,” Mr. Maggioto said.
Online ski chat rooms and social media erupted with rumors and angst, including worries that ski areas might not open at all.
Among those posting was Bruce Levitus, a skier from Bucks County, Pa., who said on the Ski Vermont Facebook page that he wouldn’t be coming to the state this winter. In a phone interview, Mr. Levitus, 56, said he has been skiing in Vermont since he was 7, first with his parents and then with his own family. “I respect what Vermont is doing, but we can’t quarantine, it’s just not possible for us,” he said. “Hence we won’t be coming to Vermont for the first time in over a decade.”
The Vermont economy depends on winter ski-season visitors who spend more than $1.6 billion a year in the tiny state, according to the Vermont Ski Areas Association. Vermont is something of a crown jewel of Eastern skiing, annually recording the most skier-day numbers in the East, around 4 million per season, a figure that rivals Utah. New Hampshire, by comparison, sees a little over 2 million per winter.
The new rules hit hard at a big market for Vermont — people who drive up for the weekend and who are unlikely to quarantine for a week for two or three days of skiing.
A number of those “weekend warriors” and their families relocated to Vermont during the pandemic, working and studying remotely from vacation homes, especially in towns around the ski centers of Stratton, Killington, Mt. Snow, Okemo, Stowe and the Mad River Valley. And some innkeepers said they hoped that a trend toward longer visits, which started this summer and fall, might continue during ski season. “We had a family here from New Jersey for over a month this fall,” said Rachel Vandenberg, the owner of the Sun and Ski Inn in Stowe.
But ski resort operators, particularly in southern Vermont, which draws more weekenders from Connecticut, New Jersey and the Albany and Long Island areas of New York than their Northern counterparts, said the quarantine will hurt.
“We’re going to feel that,” said Bill Cairns, the president of Bromley Mountain Resort.
The state’s spring pandemic lockdown closed restaurants and lodging establishments for months. The ski areas shuttered before the spring season was over, losing revenue. The combination of aggressive early shutdown measures and a deliberately slow reopening meant that Vermont came through the first wave of the pandemic better than many other places. It held cases and deaths — 59 as of earlier this week — far below those in neighboring states.
When out-of-state plates poured into Vermont at the end of the summer with the virus on the wane, businesses breathed a sigh of relief, praying the trend would hold into the winter. Stowe’s lodging occupancy rate reached a reassuring 69 percent in August, according to the Stowe Area Association, the town’s marketing organization.
But active cases spiked in late October and early November. This week the state recorded 122 cases in a single day, breaking a record previously set in April.
Vermont is hardly alone. States across American ski country are wrestling with the nationwide spike and adjusting travel and gathering guidelines accordingly. New Hampshire requires all residents of non-New England states to quarantine or test before arrival, as does Maine, which also requires Massachusetts residents to quarantine.
In the West, Colorado and Utah remain open to visitors with cautions against nonessential travel, while ski resorts in New Mexico announced this week that they would not be opening for Thanksgiving under orders from state health officials.
At the same time that he changed Vermont’s quarantine rules, Gov. Scott closed bars, banned multi-household gatherings and recommended that social get-togethers be limited to 10 or fewer people. The state has dispatched enforcement officers to bars, hotels and restaurants to carry out compliance checks.
Much of the thrust of the new regulations is directed at Vermonters themselves, since the state traced the recent spike to residents, not visitors. Hockey leagues in the state capital of Montpelier were found to be a chief source along with social gatherings, officials said. Even so, the prospect of out-of-state vacationers arriving for the holidays has locals worried.
“As a Vermonter I feel fortunate to live in this snow globe, this haven, we have this sense of pride that we’ve done this right,” said Eduardo Rovetto, the owner of Piecasso Pizzeria and Lounge, one of the biggest and busiest restaurants in Stowe. “But this is risky business. We are being abundantly cautious. But my lot is full of out-of-state plates,” he said, adding there was no way to know if patrons are abiding by the quarantine rules.
The lodging industry has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, and hoteliers and resort owners formed a lobbying group in April to work with the state on pandemic messaging and guidelines, and on needed relief funds for the industry. The state recently made $75 million available to the hospitality sector, and another $2.5 million for ski resorts.
“A lot of businesses are going into winter with no money in their bank account,” said Walter Frame, chief operating officer of the famed Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, “and many won’t make it.”
“We’re hanging on for dear life,” said Hans VanWees, the general manager of the Hotel Vermont, a luxury lakefront hotel in Burlington, referring to the statewide lodging industry.
The sector laid off about 65 percent of its staff statewide in the spring, said Mr. Van Wees, who has acted as a spokesman for the industry and a liaison with state government. Some properties have rehired some employees, but most hotels and inns continue to operate on bare-bones staffing, he said. The Hotel Vermont belongs to a group of three Burlington-area hotels where revenues for 2020 are down 75 percent year over year, Mr. Van Wees said.
Ski resorts, meanwhile, have been preparing for a challenging season, running with reduced staffing amid uncertain prospects. Ski area operators across the state said they expected revenues and skier-day numbers to be down significantly this season. Perhaps none more than Jay Peak Resort, where half of its business usually comes from Quebec. With the border closed “that’s all smoked,” said Steve Wright, Jay Peak’s chief executive.
There have been some bright spots. Season pass sales — both of multi-destination passes like the Epic and Ikon passes and those for independent areas like Bromley Mountain and Mad River Glen — have been strong, driven in part by assurances that passholders will get guaranteed lift-access and other privileges. Ski equipment has been flying off the shelves at many Vermont ski shops, owners reported. Cross-country and backcountry gear has been particularly strong, as customers seek to avoid alpine-resort crowds and Covid-era rules such as reserving ski or parking privileges ahead of time.
As of this week, ski areas across the state still had their opening days penciled in, with early season forerunners, Killington, Stowe and Stratton, cautiously aiming for Thanksgiving week, if the cold snap holds. Alpine and Nordic resorts have spent months laying the groundwork for a pandemic season. Distancing measures, including limits on unrelated parties sharing lifts, carefully designed distanced lift lines, limited lodge access, outdoor eating and warming spaces, and advanced online ticket purchases and parking reservations, are among the many measures resorts have adapted.
Mr. VanWees of the Hotel Vermont suggested an alternate way of looking at things. The pandemic guidelines, he said, “make Vermont worth visiting. Vermont is worth quarantining. Do it, then come to one of the safest places in America and enjoy the best skiing in the East.”
Vermont’s Ski Season, on the Brink
Just as winter was about to start, the state instituted a stricter quarantine and test requirement for visitors, and the snow-sports economy is bracing for the impact.
Mad River Glen in 2016. This year, the ski area had seen strong season pass sales before the state announced new quarantine guidelines. Credit...Caleb Kenna for The New York Times
By Biddle Duke
Travel and travel planning are being disrupted by the worldwide spread of the coronavirus. For the latest updates, read The New York Times’s Covid-19 coverage here.
In some ways, it looked as though the pandemic could be good for Vermont’s ski season. With international destinations out of reach and domestic air travel feeling risky, the state had the biggest ski market in the nation — New York and the Northeast corridor — at its doorstep.
“For the very first time Vermont and New England have access to the full Northeast market share,” said Brian Maggiotto, general manager at the Inn at Manchester in southern Vermont. “And with many people writing off the idea of getting on a plane, this gives Vermont access to the highest concentration of skiers within a drive’s distance.”
The state’s 20 alpine and 30 cross-country ski destinations were feeling optimistic, despite a warm fall that had already pushed back some area’s opening days for lack of snow.
The Inn at Manchester in southern Vermont saw a flow of cancellations after the Vermont governor announced new quarantine rules. Credit...Christine Glade Photography
Then last week, Gov. Phil Scott announced newly tightened quarantine rules for anyone visiting the state. They either had to commit to a 14-day quarantine (at home or in state), or a quarantine of seven days followed by a negative Covid-19 test.
Vermont’s travel guidelines didn’t mark that big a shift. The most significant change was that the state suspended the use of a color-coded system that assigned counties in the Northeast a color from green to red based on their number of cases of the coronavirus per million people. There was a time when a number of counties — although quite few — had virus case counts that were acceptable for travel to Vermont without quarantine. But now almost all of the Northeast was red.
But the governor’s announcement last Tuesday of virus-containment measures, combined with a huge spike in cases across the Northeast, triggered a wave of cancellations at hotels and inns and fear among tourism-dependent businesses that travelers would shun Vermont this winter because of the pandemic.
“There’s been a pretty consistent flow of cancellations since that day,” Mr. Maggioto said.
Online ski chat rooms and social media erupted with rumors and angst, including worries that ski areas might not open at all.
Among those posting was Bruce Levitus, a skier from Bucks County, Pa., who said on the Ski Vermont Facebook page that he wouldn’t be coming to the state this winter. In a phone interview, Mr. Levitus, 56, said he has been skiing in Vermont since he was 7, first with his parents and then with his own family. “I respect what Vermont is doing, but we can’t quarantine, it’s just not possible for us,” he said. “Hence we won’t be coming to Vermont for the first time in over a decade.”
The Vermont economy depends on winter ski-season visitors who spend more than $1.6 billion a year in the tiny state, according to the Vermont Ski Areas Association. Vermont is something of a crown jewel of Eastern skiing, annually recording the most skier-day numbers in the East, around 4 million per season, a figure that rivals Utah. New Hampshire, by comparison, sees a little over 2 million per winter.
The new rules hit hard at a big market for Vermont — people who drive up for the weekend and who are unlikely to quarantine for a week for two or three days of skiing.
A number of those “weekend warriors” and their families relocated to Vermont during the pandemic, working and studying remotely from vacation homes, especially in towns around the ski centers of Stratton, Killington, Mt. Snow, Okemo, Stowe and the Mad River Valley. And some innkeepers said they hoped that a trend toward longer visits, which started this summer and fall, might continue during ski season. “We had a family here from New Jersey for over a month this fall,” said Rachel Vandenberg, the owner of the Sun and Ski Inn in Stowe.
But ski resort operators, particularly in southern Vermont, which draws more weekenders from Connecticut, New Jersey and the Albany and Long Island areas of New York than their Northern counterparts, said the quarantine will hurt.
“We’re going to feel that,” said Bill Cairns, the president of Bromley Mountain Resort.
The state’s spring pandemic lockdown closed restaurants and lodging establishments for months. The ski areas shuttered before the spring season was over, losing revenue. The combination of aggressive early shutdown measures and a deliberately slow reopening meant that Vermont came through the first wave of the pandemic better than many other places. It held cases and deaths — 59 as of earlier this week — far below those in neighboring states.
When out-of-state plates poured into Vermont at the end of the summer with the virus on the wane, businesses breathed a sigh of relief, praying the trend would hold into the winter. Stowe’s lodging occupancy rate reached a reassuring 69 percent in August, according to the Stowe Area Association, the town’s marketing organization.
But active cases spiked in late October and early November. This week the state recorded 122 cases in a single day, breaking a record previously set in April.
Vermont is hardly alone. States across American ski country are wrestling with the nationwide spike and adjusting travel and gathering guidelines accordingly. New Hampshire requires all residents of non-New England states to quarantine or test before arrival, as does Maine, which also requires Massachusetts residents to quarantine.
In the West, Colorado and Utah remain open to visitors with cautions against nonessential travel, while ski resorts in New Mexico announced this week that they would not be opening for Thanksgiving under orders from state health officials.
At the same time that he changed Vermont’s quarantine rules, Gov. Scott closed bars, banned multi-household gatherings and recommended that social get-togethers be limited to 10 or fewer people. The state has dispatched enforcement officers to bars, hotels and restaurants to carry out compliance checks.
Much of the thrust of the new regulations is directed at Vermonters themselves, since the state traced the recent spike to residents, not visitors. Hockey leagues in the state capital of Montpelier were found to be a chief source along with social gatherings, officials said. Even so, the prospect of out-of-state vacationers arriving for the holidays has locals worried.
“As a Vermonter I feel fortunate to live in this snow globe, this haven, we have this sense of pride that we’ve done this right,” said Eduardo Rovetto, the owner of Piecasso Pizzeria and Lounge, one of the biggest and busiest restaurants in Stowe. “But this is risky business. We are being abundantly cautious. But my lot is full of out-of-state plates,” he said, adding there was no way to know if patrons are abiding by the quarantine rules.
The lodging industry has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, and hoteliers and resort owners formed a lobbying group in April to work with the state on pandemic messaging and guidelines, and on needed relief funds for the industry. The state recently made $75 million available to the hospitality sector, and another $2.5 million for ski resorts.
“A lot of businesses are going into winter with no money in their bank account,” said Walter Frame, chief operating officer of the famed Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, “and many won’t make it.”
“We’re hanging on for dear life,” said Hans VanWees, the general manager of the Hotel Vermont, a luxury lakefront hotel in Burlington, referring to the statewide lodging industry.
The sector laid off about 65 percent of its staff statewide in the spring, said Mr. Van Wees, who has acted as a spokesman for the industry and a liaison with state government. Some properties have rehired some employees, but most hotels and inns continue to operate on bare-bones staffing, he said. The Hotel Vermont belongs to a group of three Burlington-area hotels where revenues for 2020 are down 75 percent year over year, Mr. Van Wees said.
Ski resorts, meanwhile, have been preparing for a challenging season, running with reduced staffing amid uncertain prospects. Ski area operators across the state said they expected revenues and skier-day numbers to be down significantly this season. Perhaps none more than Jay Peak Resort, where half of its business usually comes from Quebec. With the border closed “that’s all smoked,” said Steve Wright, Jay Peak’s chief executive.
There have been some bright spots. Season pass sales — both of multi-destination passes like the Epic and Ikon passes and those for independent areas like Bromley Mountain and Mad River Glen — have been strong, driven in part by assurances that passholders will get guaranteed lift-access and other privileges. Ski equipment has been flying off the shelves at many Vermont ski shops, owners reported. Cross-country and backcountry gear has been particularly strong, as customers seek to avoid alpine-resort crowds and Covid-era rules such as reserving ski or parking privileges ahead of time.
As of this week, ski areas across the state still had their opening days penciled in, with early season forerunners, Killington, Stowe and Stratton, cautiously aiming for Thanksgiving week, if the cold snap holds. Alpine and Nordic resorts have spent months laying the groundwork for a pandemic season. Distancing measures, including limits on unrelated parties sharing lifts, carefully designed distanced lift lines, limited lodge access, outdoor eating and warming spaces, and advanced online ticket purchases and parking reservations, are among the many measures resorts have adapted.
Mr. VanWees of the Hotel Vermont suggested an alternate way of looking at things. The pandemic guidelines, he said, “make Vermont worth visiting. Vermont is worth quarantining. Do it, then come to one of the safest places in America and enjoy the best skiing in the East.”
Chinacat
Well-Known Angler
I get what you mean from that perspective
Chinacat
Well-Known Angler
Or at least on the verge of getting there
wader
Well-Known Angler
COVID-19 has brought health care system to 'the brink of failure,' doctors say
With over 1 million new cases of COVID-19 in the last week alone, doctors and nurses say the health care system is overwhelmed.
Great, the invasion continues. 'Da hood had 2 properties that have been for sale for over 5 years and both got sold since August.
NAH, you really don't want to live here. We have bears and great white sharks, and it's tough to find a decent bagel or a strong cell phone signal...
October home sales up 27% in Maine, reaching historic peak
pressherald.com/2020/11/19/october-home-sales-up-27-in-maine-reaching-historic-peak/
By Edward D. Murphy Staff Writer November 19, 2020
October home sales were up nearly 27 percent from a year earlier and the median sales price was nearly 25 percent ahead of the same month last year, as low interest rates and sales to out-of-state residents helped boost the market. From January to October, 2020 home sales are running about 5.6 percent above the same time period in 2019, which was a record-setting year for the state’s housing market.
The continued growth in sales has fueled higher prices, with the median sales price for a home in Maine rising to $280,000 last month, an increase of 24.5 percent from October 2019. The median price indicates that half of homes sold for more than that figure and half for less.
The increase in home sales last month was widespread, with only two of the state’s 16 counties reporting modest declines in sales. Prices rose across the board, as a tight inventory pushed demand well above supply.
The strong sales are a sharp turnaround from April and May, when an expanding pandemic threw the market into a tailspin. Home sales in the state fell by more than 15 percent in April and more than 21 percent in May, compared with the same months a year earlier.
But since then, sales and prices have climbed.
So has the interest in Maine homes among people from out of state.
Typically, about three-quarters of Maine homes are sold to other Mainers, said Tom Cole, president the Maine Association of Realtors and managing broker of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate/The Masiello Group in Brunswick. But the percentage of homes sold to out-of-staters has swelled to about one-third, Cole said.
The buyers range from retirees with some ties to the state, Cole said, to people who can live anywhere because their jobs have shifted to work-from-home positions. Maine offers a more relaxed lifestyle, he said, but remains close enough to Massachusetts if someone who works for a company in the Boston area needs to go to the office occasionally while mostly working from home.
That has helped push the hot market out from some of the larger cities and towns in the state, Cole said. As long as there’s high-speed internet available, he said, homes in smaller towns are just as attractive as those in a city such as Portland, Brunswick or Bangor.
Judy Sedgewick said her family has vacationed on Great Diamond Island every summer for years. This year, as the summer drew to a close, they decided to make the move year-round, she said.
Sedgewick said the decision was driven by her daughter, who is a high school senior. Schools in Ipswich, Massachusetts, have switched to remote learning, and Sedgewick’s daughter wanted to be able to attend at least some classes in person during her final year before college.
“I left it up to her for her senior year,” said Sedgewick, whose family also owns property in Portland. When her daughter opted for Maine, Sedgewick said, she bought a condo in South Portland. Sedgewick’s husband will remain in Massachusetts, where he works, and a grown son also lives in and works in Massachusetts.
Sedgewick said she was priced out of the Portland market, but she increased her budget, found the place in South Portland and closed on it about a month ago for $240,000.
“Things were moving really quickly and prices were climbing, so I was fortunate to find this place,” she said, although the increasing spread of the pandemic means Sedgewick and her daughter will spend Thanksgiving together, but her husband and son will stay in Massachusetts.
Cole said that while out-of-staters account for a big part of the hot real estate market, low interest rates – the rate on a 30-year mortgage is around 3 percent – are also responsible. The rates are low enough that many renters can afford to buy and pay less than they do in rent, Cole said.
“Interest rates are amazing, and that really does help people afford a home.” he said.
That’s even taking into account the low inventory of houses on the market, Cole said. He said the number of houses on the market last month was about 38 percent lower than in October 2019, and that housing inventories have been tight all year long.
The low interest rates help people buy a little more expensive homes than they might have been able to afford a few years ago, he said.
The realtors’ association said 2,341 homes were sold in Maine last month, compared with 1,845 in October 2019. The median sales price of $280,000 was a sharp increase over the median price of $224,900 in October a year ago.
All but Penobscot and Kennebec Counties posted sharp increases in home sales for the three-month period ending Oct. 31, and every county recorded an increase in the median sales price, led by Lincoln County with an increase of nearly 50 percent, from $235,000 a year ago to $347,500.
The National Association of Realtors said sales around the country last month increased by 26.7 percent last month from a year earlier, with the national median sales price rising by 16 percent to $317,700. In the Northeast, sales increased by 30.4 percent in October from a year earlier, and the median sales price increased by 20.2 percent to $356,500.
got nothing like that down here !!
TonySmjc
Well-Known Angler
Cities , towns
States n countries
With strict mandates
Without strict mandates
Those that had lockdowns and those that didnt all seeing spikes , cluster second waves
that’s gotta tell you ppl something
you ain’t stoping this by crashing the economy
Mandates , and masks don’t mean crap
States n countries
With strict mandates
Without strict mandates
Those that had lockdowns and those that didnt all seeing spikes , cluster second waves
that’s gotta tell you ppl something
you ain’t stoping this by crashing the economy
Mandates , and masks don’t mean crap
BennyV
Well-Known Angler
Exclusive | Secret plans helped Brooklyn synagogue pull off massive, maskless wedding
A Hasidic synagogue in Brooklyn planned the wedding of a chief rabbi’s grandson with such secrecy, it was able to host thousands of maskless celebrants without the city catching on. Despite a surge…
nypost.com
WhatKnot
Well-Known Angler
TonySmjc
Well-Known Angler
You will have thisExclusive | Secret plans helped Brooklyn synagogue pull off massive, maskless wedding
A Hasidic synagogue in Brooklyn planned the wedding of a chief rabbi’s grandson with such secrecy, it was able to host thousands of maskless celebrants without the city catching on. Despite a surge…
and I’m sorry but tying things like this to one group of ppl is beyond unfair
groups and ppl all across this country are ignoring a lot of the govt edicts and mandates
for right or wrong , better or worse it’s not just the orthodox
if you would open your eyes and ears for. Second it would become very clear
I don't feel that differently. Let the big event socializing go on. Some (many?) will get sick, some will die, and some will continue to have debilitating symptoms that will last for who knows how long. Strong believer in social Darwinism and many of those in close proximity to unmasked strangers will continue to prove that "survival of the fittest" is a real thing. "Cleanse" the gene pool of the people with comorbidities, isn't that a thing the Nazis wanted? I myself will continue to wear a mask in stores, getting take out and get vaccinated when its available. Fortunately as a retiree I certainly don't need a mask kayaking, deer hunting, surfcasting, mowing my lawn or in my pool. No inlaws at turkey day this year, same for Christmas. Hopefully 2021 is different.
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