Covid Mask Mandate for Transportation

[JayPea]

I don't know how our county is doing because I haven't seen an official count in months, but Spokane County, to the north of us, is doing very well. New cases are about 1/10th of what they were at the height of the pandemic. For my county I have to assume it's next to none since WSU students are still home. And come this fall WSU students are required to be vaccinated. I think we are doing just fine. The last I heard our county was at 56% vaccinated but that was a while ago so I assume it's higher now. Washington as a whole is over 70%.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I don't know how our county is doing because I haven't seen an official count in months, but Spokane County, to the north of us, is doing very well. New cases are about 1/10th of what they were at the height of the pandemic. For my county I have to assume it's next to none since WSU students are still home. And come this fall WSU students are required to be vaccinated. I think we are doing just fine. The last I heard our county was at 56% vaccinated but that was a while ago so I assume it's higher now. Washington as a whole is over 70%.

You can check here

https://covidactnow.org/us/washington-wa/?s=2075995

 

[Bob Dylan]

My area is still doing well. For my county, you can count the number of new cases in the past 14 days with one hand - and still have a couple of fingers to spare.

Stay Safe, Viruses don't follow Borders!

 

[flitcraft]

The Seattle Times (behind paywall so no link) ran a story last week about a survey on vaccine hesitancy which pointed out that even county-level stats are misleading, since many counties are large enough to have pockets which vary demographically quite a bit. So, King County, where Seattle is located, has zip codes where the vaccine hesitant (responding that they definitely or probably wouldn't get the vaccine) were only 1-2 percent of the total population, and other zip codes where the vaccine hesitant numbered in the high teens. So, the overall vaccine hesitancy rate of 7% for King County is misleading--we need more granular data than at the county level to understand where efforts are needed to try to address hesitancy issues. I suspect this is true generally--at least, where counties are large enough to have demographic variability.

 

[Asher]

The Seattle Times (behind paywall so no link) ran a story last week about a survey on vaccine hesitancy which pointed out that even county-level stats are misleading, since many counties are large enough to have pockets which vary demographically quite a bit. So, King County, where Seattle is located, has zip codes where the vaccine hesitant (responding that they definitely or probably wouldn't get the vaccine) were only 1-2 percent of the total population, and other zip codes where the vaccine hesitant numbered in the high teens. So, the overall vaccine hesitancy rate of 7% for King County is misleading--we need more granular data than at the county level to understand where efforts are needed to try to address hesitancy issues. I suspect this is true generally--at least, where counties are large enough to have demographic variability.

Travelers coming from near and far changes the local demographics.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Travelers coming from near and far changes the local demographics.

So true, especially in places that have lots of Visitors and also hundreds of people a week moving there from all over the World,especially those who are Unvaccinated!

This is part of why Austin is going back to the Stage 4 Protocols after seeing our COVID Stats Shooting Up to a level not seen since January!

 

[Asher]

So true, especially in places that have lots of Visitors and also hundreds of people a week moving there from all over the World,especially those who are Unvaccinated!

This is part of why Austin is going back to the Stage 4 Protocols after seeing our COVID Stats Shooting Up to a level not seen since January!

Austin is definitely a hot spot for travelers. Aren’t they planing a lot of work on the airport to take care of the surge.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Austin is definitely a hot spot for travelers. Aren’t they planing a lot of work on the airport to take care of the surge.

Yep, there's a Master Plan to Double the Size of the too Small Airport but it'll take years!

 

[neroden]

The numbers in my county are actually very good, but unfortunately tourism is our second-largest industry and education our largest, *and* due to not constructing enough housing for the last 70 years, we have a lot of people commuting from neighboring counties. So we are very far from being an island. And the counties around us are not doing well and have low vaccination numbers (due to having a lot more right-wing idiots). So I don't see how we avoid reimportation of cases.

 

[west point]

Yes by Zip code is better. Our county has 3 with one sharing a common city with another state zip. Vaccination rates are quite different in each zip.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Extended again

 

[Ryan]

 

[PaTrainFan]

Before my recent trip to New York I discovered an anti-fogging spray marketed by Zeiss and it worked like a charm. My glasses were totally fog free and made the trip with mask so much more tolerable.

 

[yarrow]

we in stevens county, wa(otherwise known as "cretin country")have a vaccination rate of 30 some percent(even with our state of washington having a rate above 70 percent) and a very high rate of delta variant infection. we have an amtrak trip from spokane to santa barbara booked in october but i just don't know. thanks, cretins

 

[moosejunky99]

I'm travelling to California in Oct. So, I'm glad to hear about them extending the mandate.. It makes me fell safer on a train.. But i did buy a room (that is nice)... I don't know how coach passenger do a 53 hour train ride...

 

[KeepItGoing]

We did a 30-hour ride last month. (We had reserved a sleeper but they called and said it wouldn't be available after all—it was our return trip or we might have put off the trip entirely.) I was surprised at how I got used to the mask. I had decided that if it was too hot for the mask, I was just going to get off wherever and fly home. I was very glad I didn't have to!

If that mask extension had happened just a few weeks ago, I would have been very annoyed. But at this point, I'm beginning to wonder whether it might end up being a permanent requirement to wear masks in public transit and some other settings. It's all very sad.

 

[west point]

Delta sucks and who knows what lambda is going to do ????

 

[neroden]

Eh, wearing masks in public by default was normalized in China, Japan, and Korea a long time ago. Let's just run with it. Helps with pollution, wildfire smoke, and disease.

 

[me_little_me]

we in stevens county, wa(otherwise known as "cretin country")have a vaccination rate of 30 some percent(even with our state of washington having a rate above 70 percent) and a very high rate of delta variant infection. we have an amtrak trip from spokane to santa barbara booked in october but i just don't know. thanks, cretins

Time to look for a one way trip somewhere.

 

[Exvalley]

I was a bit surprised to see that the mask mandate was extended until January. The optimist in me was hoping that things would be under control before then.

 

[zephyr17]

I was a bit surprised to see that the mask mandate was extended until January. The optimist in me was hoping that things would be under control before then.

Well, the US hit 1 million vaccinations yesterday for the first time in quite some time, so that's heading in the right direction again for now.

 

[Oreius]

I’m likely sure this has been brought up. But, are you allowed to unmask in your sleeper room with the door closed? I understand wearing them when not in the room or eating/drinking. I just want to make sure.

Today’s Starlight Consist is as follows:

2 P42DC locos
2 sleepers
1 diner
1 business class—not sure if it’s any different than coach.
1–SSL
1 coach
1 coach-baggage.

The only thing I’m wondering is why two engines? A P42DC can pull up to 9 cars at a time. When I rode the Star in 2019, it only had one engine. It had 4 coaches, 1 lounge, 2 sleepers and 1 baggage on the rear.

 

[OBS]

Your understanding of the masking rules should be fine....

 

[PerRock]

Officially, no masks need to be worn at all times. However I wouldn't be surprised if they let you take them off in your room; you can have them ask their car attendant.
https://www.amtrak.com/coronavirus
As for the locomotive, Superliner cars are bigger & heavier than the cars on the Silvers (engines care about weight, not #s of cars); there are also the Cascade & Rocky mountains to cross.

 

[Oreius]

Your understanding of the masking rules should be fine....

I rode the Meteor in sleeper class back in February, and was allowed to remove it while in my room. I wasn’t sure if anything changed. I’m in the same car as my parents.