I’m happy to report an extremely light news week with low numbers and very little happening. Yay! I hope this is a good sign as we transition from July to August!

As always: If your mental health is at a point where you cannot bear to hear more about quarantine stuff, skip to the bottom of this post for a list of positives and highlights and Nice Things. We all need some of that right now!

This week in numbers
We began the week with 40,253 cases, a weekly case average of 803 new daily cases, and a total of 347 deaths. There were some sharp drops this week, and I’m a bit wary…

• Friday, July 31st: 40,803 (+550), 349 deaths
• Saturday, August 1st: 41,177 (+374), 352 deaths
• Sunday, August 2nd: 41,082 (+524), 368 deaths**
• Monday, August 3rd: 41,138 (+56), 370 deaths
• Tuesday, August 4th: 41,274 (+136), 380 deaths**
• Wednesday, August 5th: 41,614 (+340), 394 deaths
• Thursday, August 6th: 41,939 (+325), 406 deaths

**The numbers were a mess this week. The city transitioned to a different system for compatibility with the state’s reporting, so there were duplication errors leading to a drop in overall total, and a certain amount of backlog. Supposedly, any backlog due to transition should be gone now. Plus, we’ve found out that a bunch of deaths haven’t been reported in a timely manner, and deaths on the two stared dates go back through late April.

But in any case, doing the best I can with the data I have this week, we had a total of 2,305 new cases reported this week (329 daily average – less than half last week’s average), and 59 deaths (not all from this week).

Weekly stats, which are updated each Monday, continue to show a positive trend: positivity rate down to 14.8%, and doubling rate is up to 21 days. Just like last week, pediatric cases (under age 18) continues to increase, this week up to 15%.

Totals for July: First, let me give a bit of perspective. From March 13th to May 31st, we had a total of 2,830 cases and 74 deaths. In June, we had an additional 9,235 cases and 36 deaths, putting us at a total of 12,065 cases and 110 deaths. June saw 77% of all our total cases at that point. Then we moved into July. Following the exponential rise we saw in June, July saw an additional 28,738 cases and 239 deaths! That’s 70% of our total 40,803 cases and 68% of our 349 deaths in a single month. It’s an average of 927 cases per day – more than the 795 we had on June 27th that prompted the emergency alert sent to all the phones in San Antonio and sent the boys and me up to Wisconsin a day earlier than planned – and 8 daily deaths. It’s more than 10x the total number of cases we had in the first 2.5 months of this pandemic. That’s effin’ insane, to put it mildly. Please let August be better than this!! [Note: These numbers are likely skewed slightly due to the updates in reporting from Aug 2nd onwards.]

This week in San Antonio
The biggest news article again this week is the war-against-schools. The governor released a statement on 7/31 saying that local health authorities can’t mandate that schools be virtual in anticipation of covid-19 outbreaks. Only school districts can do that, but if they do so, they can only receive funding for the first eight weeks of classes, at which point they’ll have to go through the TEA for a special waiver and approval to continue virtual learning funds. Local health authorities, however, can close down a specific school if there is an outbreak there. Just no pre-emptive authority. Which of course is a bunch of crap. Our local government and lawyers have stated that they disagree with the governor’s interpretation of the law and could sue, but rather than going this route, they’re going to just hope the school districts are smart about things and follow the local health authorities’ recommendations.

We know that our local school district will be virtual-only for three weeks, and it looks like they’ll be providing virtual options afterwards (which we’ll take). But it also looks like this is going to be a continual battle all year, with the poor kids caught in the middle.

Other news from the week:

• multiple teachers resigning, or making wills in advance of the school year, or in some cases, passing away from covid already this summer 😦
• siclovia officially canceled this fall
• 100+ HEB employees tested positive in July

This week at home
Honestly, there is very little to report from home. My dad, stepmom, and half-sister came to visit this weekend, dropping off a belated present for Ambrose’s birthday. We all sat outside in the 100-degree heat, more than six feet apart and in masks besides, since three of us are still under quarantine. I’ll be so glad when this isn’t a thing anymore! Masks in the heat = no fun. In fact, one evening, Jason and I spent half an hour trying to rescue four siamese-mix kittens from running in the road near our house, in masks because we had to approach houses to try to find out where they belonged.

Otherwise, Morrigan set his schedule for the next semester. His classes are all half-online, half-in-person, except one fully-online course. So at least that should minimize some of the danger. He’ll be living on campus, though; I guess we’ll see how that goes. Ambrose’s college still hasn’t let him choose classes, so we have no idea what will happen with that. They haven’t even put his financial aid package up yet, and school starts in 2.5 weeks.

Positives and Highlights and Nice Things
It was a relatively good week, quiet and calm with very little news and lots of fun little things happening:

• Instant Donut, our local hole-in-the-wall donut and kolache shop, re-opened after closing back in May re: covid – yay!
• Dunkin Donuts has indoor service again, so I can go order inside even if I won’t stay to drink my iced coffee there (won’t do that until after I’m out of quarantine though!)
• ordered a couple items (like a running watch!) that I’ve wanted for a long time, excited to get them
• new Ninja blender that makes fast and easy recovery protein shakes post-strength training
• a secondary birthday party for Ambrose
• a new one-mile PR of 15:01!
• 30 Days of Terror from Real Life Ghost Stories Podcast began this week

How was your week?