Does California ban tourists from other states?

The summer of 2020 is starting to feel like a bust. Cousin Joe Bob and his children emerged from the Florida pandemic-ridden panhandle. To escape, you took a weekend off. And became ill.

Soon it will be time to get back to work. But your boss has questions. And so do you.

To help, we examined responses from experts. (Take heart: her sly summer, too.)

F: This summer, no one really wants Californians. We have to deal with restrictions – ranging from mandatory testing to self-quarantine – while vacationing in states like Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and other major escapes.

So why don’t counties in the Bay Area ban people from ‘hot zone’ states like Georgia, Texas and Florida?

IN: Our own transmission rates are so high that outsiders do not significantly add to the threat, health officials say. It makes no sense for California counties to set up rigid quarantine rules or recommendations for visitors from outside the state.

“The main exception to this would be if they have a known exhibit from where they are also back,” said Dr. Sarah Rudman of the Santa Clara County Public Health Department.

F: The Bay Area feels dangerous because it is so busy. It’s safer to vacation in the countryside, right?

IN: In theory, yes. Large metropolitan areas with a higher number of counties closely linked through economic, social and commuting relations are most vulnerable to the pandemic outbreaks. They are more likely to switch tourists and entrepreneurs, and increase the risk of infections with inter-province, according to a new report by Shima Hamidi, a public health expert at Johns Hopkins, and Sadegh Sabouri and Reid Ewing, both city planners at the University of Utah.

But this is interesting: It is not the density that makes a city sick; it is the Connectivity and the public. Indeed, higher density counties have lower death rates from viruses than buccal counties, possibly due to superior health care systems.

F: I’m home from my trip. Can my boss insist that I be checked and wear a mask?

IN: “Employers have the option – especially health care employers – to set alternative or conservative recommendations (then counties) – for exclusion from work, counting or testing before returning to a work facility,” Rudman said.

F: What are the best types of masks?

IN: Not all masks are the same. According to a new visual technique developed by a Duke University team, the most effective coverages are N95 masks without valves – the coverings of hospital degrees used by workers in primary care. ‘Paper’ surgical masks look thin but perform well too.

But even hand-made cotton face coatings provided good coverage, eliminating a substantial amount of the spray from normal speech.

On the other hand, bandanas and neck braces like balaclavas barely remained the drops. Researchers saw more droplets expelled through these materials – perhaps because the substance broke up larger droplets as they passed through the material, they speculate.

If you want extra security, add a face shield.

F: I visited a friend who is now ill, and I think I was exposed. What are my risks?

IN: “Close contact” is defined as being exposed to an infected person during the period in which they are infected – which is defined as 48 hours before the onset of symptoms or at any time during the next 10 days of their illness.

In a health care setting, exposure is assumed if you are 15 minutes or more within 6 feet of an infected person. Social institutions are obviously more complicated. They are affected by the type of face covering you are wearing, air circulation and other factors. It is good to be conservative, and to accept the least.

If you have no symptoms, take care of career for 14 days from the last time you saw that person – and get tested. If you are sick, self-quarantine immediately.

If you think you may have accidentally exposed someone else, tell them right away; do not wait for city or county officials to do it. Friends do not let friends spread COVID-19.

F: How should I control myself?

IN: If you have a thermometer, check and record your temperature twice a day. Contact a doctor immediately if you have a fever, develop a cough or shortness of breath, have persistent pain or pressure in your chest, develop confusion, are unable to wake or stay awake, have blue lips or face, or develop mild symptoms such as sore throat, muscle aches, fatigue or diarrhea.

F: How soon do symptoms appear?

IN: Until last week, we believed that most symptoms appear about four to five days after infection.

But a new study of patients by a team of National Institutes of Health in Wuhan, China, sought to improve the accuracy of our estimates. The team calculated that the median incubation period was 7.75 days. About 10% of patients showed an incubation period of 14.28 days.

F: I was sick but came back. Do I need to be checked before I return to work?

IN: Nope. While many employers require a test, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention actually opposes it. There is no need to repeat tests of people who are infected and have returned to health, it claims.

Why not? Several studies show that some people test positive for weeks, even when they are no longer infected, due to residual fragments of viral genetic material, said Dr. Sarah Rudman of the Santa Clara County Public Health Department. This false-positive test keeps them from returning to work or being reunited with their loved ones.