So How Was Your Shul This Week?

[Yonah]

TL;DR - at least where I am masks, and probably outdoor minyanim are here for a while.

Wading in to the deep end here - i live two towns over from New Rochelle, where the first frum patient was diagnosed. YINR was the first shul to close for obvious reasons - however, there are only 3-4 yeshivas in our area, and because a lot of the kids attended the same events as the original victim (for example, a lot of the girls in one of my son's grade were at the same bat mitzvah, and several had corona - the first week in March) it quickly spread to the schools and shuls in our area - Scarsdale, White Plains, New Rochelle, Riverdale. The last minyan we had before corona was purim morning, and even that was outside. About a half-dozen people in our shul got sick at that point too, including 1-2 that were hospitalized (B"H, they are doing well now, but 1-2 still not 100%).

Closing shul, however reluctant we were about it. Was a no-brainer seeing how quickly and how many were sick. In late may, our shul re-opened as soon as we were legally able to do so, a few weeks later, we moved some minyanim inside. We hold minyan in our social hall, because the space is open. We simply used a 6-foot table to create aisles and rows - in order to maintain social distancing. People are required to wear masks. The first few weeks were rough, because we were limited to 10 people per minyan.

B"H people are coming back to shul. But at the same time, there are people who're yet to come back. One of our Ba'alei kriyah is very concerned about corona, and isn't ready yet, another member of our shul, was worried about security implications of davening outside, so when we moved inside he started coming, but then felt our HVAC wasn't good enough, so he's now holding out until we upgrade.

At the same time, we have at least minyan of people that are not ready to daven inside yet. This is a partial reason why we're still having minyanim outside - because there are enough of them and we don't want to deprive them of a minyan.

If NY continues to progress in the correct direction, I expect many more people to be coming to shul over the next few weeks in the lead up to the Yamim Noraim. But we're already anticipating our Yamim Noraim crowds might be 25-35% less than in a normal year. (Understand, I am not talking about 3-day a year jews here, these are people who come to shul regularly, who haven't been in shul since purim).

[ExGingi]

TL;DR - at least where I am masks, and probably outdoor minyanim are here for a while.

Wading in to the deep end here - i live two towns over from New Rochelle, where the first frum patient was diagnosed. YINR was the first shul to close for obvious reasons - however, there are only 3-4 yeshivas in our area, and because a lot of the kids attended the same events as the original victim (for example, a lot of the girls in one of my son's grade were at the same bat mitzvah, and several had corona - the first week in March) it quickly spread to the schools and shuls in our area - Scarsdale, White Plains, New Rochelle, Riverdale. The last minyan we had before corona was purim morning, and even that was outside. About a half-dozen people in our shul got sick at that point too, including 1-2 that were hospitalized (B"H, they are doing well now, but 1-2 still not 100%).

Closing shul, however reluctant we were about it. Was a no-brainer seeing how quickly and how many were sick. In late may, our shul re-opened as soon as we were legally able to do so, a few weeks later, we moved some minyanim inside. We hold minyan in our social hall, because the space is open. We simply used a 6-foot table to create aisles and rows - in order to maintain social distancing. People are required to wear masks. The first few weeks were rough, because we were limited to 10 people per minyan.

B"H people are coming back to shul. But at the same time, there are people who're yet to come back. One of our Ba'alei kriyah is very concerned about corona, and isn't ready yet, another member of our shul, was worried about security implications of davening outside, so when we moved inside he started coming, but then felt our HVAC wasn't good enough, so he's now holding out until we upgrade.

At the same time, we have at least minyan of people that are not ready to daven inside yet. This is a partial reason why we're still having minyanim outside - because there are enough of them and we don't want to deprive them of a minyan.

If NY continues to progress in the correct direction, I expect many more people to be coming to shul over the next few weeks in the lead up to the Yamim Noraim. But we're already anticipating our Yamim Noraim crowds might be 25-35% less than in a normal year. (Understand, I am not talking about 3-day a year jews here, these are people who come to shul regularly, who haven't been in shul since purim).

What percentage of the congregation would you say had COVID-19 symptoms or significant exposure from a household member that had symptoms?

[Yonah]

What percentage of the congregation would you say had COVID-19 symptoms or significant exposure from a household member that had symptoms?

A very small percentage (speaking anecdotally) about 5-10 families out of 130. The other orthodox shul in our town had an infection spread at a bar mitzvah in late february - between the NR and the shutdown, they might have had maybe a dozen families get sick, including the family of the bar mitzvah boy, who were interviewed in the Wall Street Journal in march.

But bear in mind, that we shut down pretty quickly because of the shul in New Rochelle. Understand, because of the NR incident large High Schools like Frisch and SAR (800 and 650 students, respectively)were infected, and mosdos in Westchester and Bergen county shut down a couple of weeks before places like Brooklyn and Lakewood.

[aygart]

significant exposure from a household member that had symptoms?

All evidence has shown that this is not such a relevant metric at all if they didn't actually catch it. It also seems that many other settings are a much more significant exposure than family members as counterintuitive as that may seem.

[ExGingi]

All evidence has shown that this is not such a relevant metric at all if they didn't actually catch it. It also seems that many other settings are a much more significant exposure than family members as counterintuitive as that may seem.

Is there any anecdotal evidence of someone not getting infected from significant exposure to a family member with symptoms, and getting infected at a later date in some other way?

[aygart]

Is there any anecdotal evidence of someone not getting infected from significant exposure to a family member with symptoms, and getting infected at a later date in some other way?

Yes. I know of 2 and my recollection is that others were mentioned here but I am not searching for them.

[biobook]

@Dan Just trying to be helpful without posting criticism at that site. If you know this Dr, maybe you could suggest that he run his blog posts by some colleagues before posting.  Future employers may look askance at a physician who refers to medical professionals as "the experts", in quotes, as if he doesn't quite trust them.  And who considers "a certain amount of critical thinking" to be important in a pandemic, seeming to imply that he doesn't bother to think critically about his medical practices at other times.