Just looking at the the NY Times coronavirus tracker today......

[marmar]

..... the number of new cases is still high, but the curve definitely seems to be flattening. The number of new cases hasn't varied much over the last week.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html

[Pobeka]

1. I've been seeing that too, in a number of hand picked states.

Now comes the part where the slow burn moves through the less populated areas.

[roamer65]

2. The school reopenings will turbocharge it.

They are providing a new avenue for the virus.

[marmar]

3. Yep that's definitely a big concern.

[dalton99a]

5. +1. Unvaccinated kids will be the new carriers and incubators for a new variant

[Wounded Bear]

4. I think that people are masking up again...nt

[Ms. Toad]

15. Yes - just like always,

when people mask up, the rates drop.

[Scrivener7]

6. Missouri, which seemed to be the first state to really buckle under Delta, seems to

be seeing a dip in new cases.

You might be right about this. Fingers crossed.

[SWBTATTReg]

7. I hope so. I lost a friend of a good friend of mine due to his ignorant refusal to get the vaccine.

He's dead now but at least my good friend, who did get the vaccine, is okay, but he lost a good friend (he's 78). I'm sad for him, so will pay more closer attention to him to help him through this rough spot.

[Hugin]

9. Who's left to get it there?

Seriously.

Of course, we haven't even started talking about reinfection, yet.

[Scrivener7]

10. Yes, exactly, and I fear that is how this will go. Delta will spread to everyone, and once

it has burned through the population there will only be three categories of people: those who are vaccinated, those who had the virus and have immunity, and those who are dead.

Because of the morons, that is the only way this ends. So, paradoxically, I am hoping for Delta to do its work fast, before a variant can pop up that is vaccine resistant and that can overcome Delta.

[LisaL]

8. Well don't get your hopes up.

UK started dipping then reached a high plateau.

[Hugin]

11. I keep looking at this chart.

I suspect we were in one of the clear bands late this Spring. Then Delta kicked in. The only way we're going to beat this thing is an all out effort in one of the bands. That means everybody...

[bluewater]

12. Thanks for the link to the NY Times Covid Tracker

That's a great resource.

Thanks again.

[Larissa]

13. The "Hot Spot" Map

Scrolling down to the almost completely red zones of the "Hot Spot" map is disheartening. Are we ever going to get in front of this virus?

[Ms. Toad]

14. Its been increasing at a slower rate for about 2 weeks now.

Both the NYT dashboard and worldometers are flirting with flattening or decreasing, but the belated data dumps so far have always overcome momentary dips. My guess is with schools opening it will be a Thanksgiving/Christmas-like dip - followed my more climbing.