Big Ten says he’s ready to play some football this weekend, but the mayors of the towns where the teams are based politely asked him to address his Covid-19 concerns before the kick-off.
“We know the history of football games within our cities,” Mayro wrote in an open letter to the Big Ten conference this week, which actually has 14 universities and includes college football programs with stores such as Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin. “They use a lot of activities, social gatherings and alcohol. These activities in our communities are also associated with the growing spread of Kovid-19. ”
Even though all Big Ten games will be played without fans of the stands this season, the mayor wrote, “We humbly request a few practical steps that the Big Ten Conference Conference can take to make sure we have the tools we need. Covid 19. “
Mayor Aaron “While we all appreciate our college leagues and university sports programs and the economic and community benefits they offer, the Covid-19 crisis is not far off and we expect some potential new setbacks as a result of the upcoming football season.” Mayor Aaron Stephens of Michigan State University’s hometown, East Lansing, Michigan, added in a separate statement.
NBC News has reached out to the Big Ten for the mayor’s response. His letter was delivered more than a month after the league, which took refuge in the season due to concerns about the epidemic, abruptly ended the course and announced that he would be playing after all.
President Donald Trump, who pushed the Big Ten to return to Gridiron, claimed victory. But the league’s leadership said the development of rapid Covid-19 test technology – the president’s pressure tactics – was behind his decision.
The president of Big Ten University, who asked not to be identified, said President Trump had nothing to do with our decision and did not affect the deliberations. “In fact, when his name came up, it was negative, because no one wanted this to be political.”
In other coronavirus news:
- In the two weeks leading up to the presidential election, a referendum is being held on Trump, which has been heavily criticized for its epidemic. world. Millions of confirmed Covid-1 cases and 223,444 deaths are leading the world, according to the latest figures compiled by NBC News.
- Trump faced Democratic challenger JB Biden in his final debate on Thursday, with Frank Ferenkoff, co-chair of the commission on presidential debates, saying the commission has taken several steps to keep candidates safe, including installing Plexiglass between the podiums. . “I’m not sure the Trump campaign wants that,” he told MSNBC.
- Last week, some 7,0007,000 people applied for unemployment benefits for the first time, the lowest weekly count since March. But weekly claims have been stubbornly high since the outbreak began, surpassing the previous record of 665,000 during the Great Recession of 2007-09.
- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfett has again shut down indoor bar service and imposed other restrictions as Wind City and Illinois have been exposed to new coronavirus infections.
- Weekend Washington DC was bracing for a potential superspreader event this weekend while a controversial Christian activist is planning to hold a “worship protest” at a national mall. The city can’t stop Sean Fecht because he owns it on federal land.
- Govt. Of New Jersey. Phil Murphy, after receiving help with a case of coronavirus confirmation, said in quarantine that he was undergoing a negative test, but would remain in solitary confinement until doctors agreed to discharge him. “I got to practice what we preach,” he said.
- New Hampshire restaurant owners chose to close rather than comply with the state’s mask order. What’s just closed in the city of Ping is Roselin reading homemade ice cream breakfast and lunch signs on the door, “Live Free or Die What Happened,” reads.
The impending kick-off of the Big Ten season comes as new Covid-19 cases in the United States have been growing at an unprecedented rate since July, and over a two-week period, new ones have risen 18.5 percent. Cases, NBC News analysis shows.
The Deputy Director of Infectious Diseases of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. “Over the past week, we’ve seen an average of about 1,000,000 cases a day, with over 100 deaths,” Butler said on Wednesday. He said the number of coronavirus cases was “increasing in about 75 per cent of the country.”
U.S. Idaho is one of the states with a dramatic increase in new cases, with a positive Covid-19 test rate of 31.75 percent, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Research Center. It is the second highest rate in the country after South Dakota.
The World Health Organization advises governments to maintain a test positivity rate of 5 percent or less for 14 days before reopening.
Idaho’s condition is so dire that local health officials are considering sending new coronavirus patients to neighboring Washington state and Oregon, as they are getting out of hospital beds.
The new infection is also present in many Midwestern and plain states, such as Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska and Ohio, where Big Ten teams also play.
NBC News figures show that Ohio, once a success story, reported a record 2,425 new cases overnight and 2,000 cases for seven in the last nine days, according to NBC News.
So among other things, the Big Ten mayor asked in his letter that the conference with local health officials work to determine based on the latest coronavirus positivity test rate whether it is safe to host a game in a given city on any given day.
They asked Big Ten to publish his full schedule and game time so they could plan ahead. And in addition, they urged that Big Ten would avoid scheduling the game at night or early in the evening, arguing that this could encourage people to hold a party and increase the likelihood of the community spreading.
“The Covid-19 crisis continues to present challenges in our communities,” Meiro wrote. “While we are all excited to start playing football, we must acknowledge that this activity also poses potential new obstacles while trying to slow the spread of this virus.”
The letter was signed by 11 of the 14 Big Ten city mayors after a meeting on Friday. Three mayors – Lincoln, Nebraska (home of the Nebraska Cornhookers); New Brunswick, New Jersey (home of the Rutters Scarlet Knights); And Champion, Illinois (home of Fighting Illinois) – did not sign the letter.
Lincoln Mayor Lorraine Geller Baird said scheduled opposition prevented her from attending the meeting and the letter was only later reported.
“The mayor appreciates the Big 10’s shared commitment to protecting his colleagues and our communities,” Baird said in a statement.
