Liberal Free Chat Zone

[ksquared]

Hiya, AJ. The Villages made the WSJ. I can see why you were freaking about people climbing fences to use the pools. I can't post the whole thing so if you have local source information please post it. I'd like to read it. Thanks.

Watching and Waiting for a Coronavirus Surge at The Villages in Florida
Sprawling retirement community has at least 68 residents positive for Covid-19; ‘an opportunity for it to take off’
By Arian Campo-Flores | Photographs by Eve Edelheit for The Wall Street Journal
April 17, 2020 8:00 am ET

Residents of The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in central Florida, were still gathering in town squares, visiting nail salons and browsing an estate sale in late March. Only after Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a statewide stay-at-home order April 1 did many of the holdouts hunker down, residents and officials say.

The delay in adopting social-distancing measures could haunt The Villages, a fast-growing metro area of more than 128,000 people whose older age makes them especially vulnerable to Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. At least 68 residents of The Villages have tested positive for the virus, according to state data, though the number is likely higher given the paucity of testing.

“There is clearly an opportunity for it to take off and cause problems,” said Glenn Morris, director of the University of Florida Emerging Pathogens Institute. “At least right at the moment, things appear stable.”

The state doesn’t release Covid-related fatality figures for The Villages, but 19 people have died of it since the start of the outbreak in the three counties the community is spread across. In Sumter County, where most of The Villages is located, the fatality rate from the disease is more than triple that of the state as a whole, according to state data. Florida had more than 23,000 Covid cases and 633 deaths as of Thursday...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/watching-and-waiting-for-a-coronavirus-surge-at-the-villages-in-florida-11587124800?mod=hp_featst_pos1