A long, ugly COVID wave is devastating our communities. Here’s what’s going on and what you need to know to help keep yourself and your community safe

Graphic by Matilda Bliss

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COVID WAVE ALERT — April 17, 2023

This is the current COVID-19 wave alert. For clarity and additional information the previous weeks’ are below this alert

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this alert

• A very troubling spike in virus in wastewater may indicate that covid risks are about to surge. Combined with heading into tourism season, it’s a bad sign

• While there’s not yet enough information to increase the covid risk level, it’s important to stick with some key precautions like wearing an N95 in indoor public places and testing frequently

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

For the past two weeks covid rates have moved up, but very slowly. Enough to keep this long covid wave from finally ending, but only just. That changed this week.

Virus in wastewater — usually the first measure of a renewed covid wave — saw a sudden and troubling surge. Both readings ran in this direction, so it wasn’t the occasional outlier like we’ve seen a few times in the past.

There’s some chance that’s a temporary surge, but given the time of year (tourism is, regrettably, back) it seems unlikely. We’ll know more next week.

Test positivity also moved up slightly to 6.3 percent from 6.1 last week.

However, that doesn’t contradict the high wastewater rates. Typically serious covid waves/spikes sees wastewater rise first, then test positivity, then finally hospitalizations and deaths.

While we hope this is a temporary surge like we saw earlier this Spring, it’s important to face reality and realize that it’s likely covid risks are once again headed up.

That also brings us to a grim milestone. Tomorrow Asheville will have been in a covid wave — defined as test positivity rates above 5 percent and significant virus in wastewater — for a solid year. This is really unusual when compared to other cities, even during the bleak “back to normal” year we’ve just had.

In that year 164 locals died from covid. That’s almost certainly an undercount and doesn’t include deaths from complications of long covid, which are becoming more prevalent as the virus continue to run amok.

Asheville’s unusually awful rates are explained by a combination of runaway tourism, rampant poverty (a lot of locals have to work in highly unsafe conditions) and parts of the culture that prioritize indulgence and conflict avoidance over honesty and community care. The long wave has been as revealing as it is awful.

It is not over yet.

Steps to take

While rates are increasing, they’re not yet enough to show that risks have exponentially increased from where they were before. For now, at least, it’s important to keep up the same precautions as the past few weeks. That said, given the directions things are going, it’s important to be strict about it. For example, if you’ve been going into some crowded indoor public spaces without an N95, stop.

Wear an N95 in public places — This remains a good precaution to take regardless of covid level. It’s absolutely essential right now. If you’re running an errand or going to work or end up in any crowded public space you should be wearing an N95-level mask. It offers substantial protection even if no one else is masked and helps keep you and others safe, which is really important as rates are spiking back up due to tourism and a lack of more widespread community protections.

Likewise, rapid tests remain a really good precaution for close get-togethers with those outside your immediate household or circle and are a tool that shouldn’t be discarded even if rates keep getting lower. They’re especially essential during spring allergies, and it’s a good idea to take them if you’re feeling stuffed up. Knowing the difference between pollen and covid is key this time of year.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid highly crowded, maskless spaces — While they still carry very real risks, indoor spaces aren’t as dangerous as they were a month ago. That said, if a place is packed with maskless strangers or tourists it’s probably best to come back later or steer clear. The rates we have still indicate substantial covid spread and some real risks.

On this note, it’s worth still being very careful for any big events in your home. Throwing a birthday party? Plan now for everyone attending to take a rapid test, review covid precautions in advance, etc.

Get the omicron booster — While not bulletproof (it’s still essential to mask and avoid particularly risky situations), the bivalent/omicron booster reduces the possibility of infection, reduces the likelihood you’ll spread it to others and offers bolstered protections against its worst impacts. It’s continued to hold up pretty well  Indeed, the fact a fairly high proportion of the local population (33 percent, far above the state average) was one of the reasons we some actual declines in covid rates earlier in the Spring.

The local health department still offers free boosters. Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Review covid boundaries and precautions with those close to you — Uncertain times like this can be especially risky during the pandemic. It is a very good idea to have an honest conversation with those close to you about what precautions need to be taken and what your particular risks are.  This can save a lot of grief down the road, and it’s really important for everyone to have a clear idea about what they need to do to keep each other safe.

Support higher-risk people — Higher-risk people have faced atrocious treatment during this wave, with “back to normal” meaning the loss of access to spaces and services we used to have. Even as rates have declined many spaces still remain unsafe. Even groups in Asheville ostensibly dedicated to social justice have largely dropped all covid precautions, though we’re finally seeing some promising shifts on this front. So make a point of helping higher-risk people you know out with errands, food and finding safe ways to socialize and keep in touch. This will only become more important with the upcoming end of the covid emergency.

When the Blade started the alerts for this wave, we thought we’d only be publishing them for a few months before covid rates went back down and the wave ended. But that didn’t happen.

As bleak as it’s been to watch far too many pretend like covid’s over, we owe it to our readers to keep telling the truth. Fortunately plenty of locals have also encouraged us, thanked us for doing these alerts.

That means more than we can put into words. We keep us safe, Asheville.

COVID WAVE ALERT — April 10, 2023

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this alert

• Local covid rates continue to inch up, and while the increases aren’t huge they’re still not a good sign given we’re heading into tourism season

• While things are trending in a worrying direction right now, covid infection risks remain roughly where they’ve been for the past few weeks. Keep wearing an N95 indoors and steer clear of particularly risky activities

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Covid rates in our local area continue to rise, though for the moment fairly slowly. While not the worst news, it’s still not particularly good given that we’re heading into tourism season, which pretty inevitably brings an increase in infections.

Test positivity moved to 6.1 percent, from 5.7 last week.

While that’s not good given the generally riskier time of year we’re heading into, virus in wastewater rates are the most troubling covid sign this week, as they substantially increased.

Generally virus in wastewater is the first sign of an increase in covid risks. While it’s still a bit early to tell if we’re seeing a spike (or, worse, yet another wave within this long wave) it’s not a good sign.

Not everything’s doom and gloom. The Asheville area has an unusually high bivalent booster rate, which has blunted some of the spread and worst impacts during recent months. Some spaces have been finally taking some basic precautions a bit more seriously. While there’s no easy way to measure this, masks seem to once again be a bit more common sight in some areas. Rates are — for the moment — far lower than they were a month or two ago.

But “substantial risk” means just that. There are still real, substantial risks of covid infection in Asheville. Next week this wave will turn a year old, a deeply grim milestone.

Once again we’re faced with the fact that with Asheville having massive tourism, abundant poverty and a widespread lack of precautions means we see worse covid rates than many other cities. Until something major changes, that’s where we’re likely to stay.

Steps to take

The precautions needed right now are pretty similar to recent weeks, thought maybe with an extra exclamation point or two given those potentially worrying wastewater rates.

Wear an N95 in public places — This remains a good precaution to take regardless of covid level. If you’re running an errand or going to work or end up in any crowded public space you should be wearing an N95-level mask. It offers substantial protection even if no one else is masked and helps keep you and others safe, especially with the possibility that rates could — as we saw last Spring — spike back up due to a lack of more widespread community protections.

Likewise, rapid tests remain a really good precaution for close get-togethers with those outside your immediate household or circle and are a tool that shouldn’t be discarded even if rates keep getting lower. They’re especially essential during spring allergies, and it’s a good idea to take them if you’re feeling stuffed up. Knowing the difference between pollen and covid is key this time of year.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid highly crowded, maskless spaces — While they still carry very real risks, indoor spaces aren’t as dangerous as they were a month ago. That said, if a place is packed with maskless strangers or tourists it’s probably best to come back later or steer clear. The rates we have still indicate substantial covid spread and some real risks.

On this note, it’s worth still being very careful for any big events in your home. Throwing a birthday party? Plan now for everyone attending to take a rapid test, review covid precautions in advance, etc.

Get the omicron booster — While not bulletproof (it’s still essential to mask and avoid particularly risky situations), the bivalent/omicron booster reduces the possibility of infection, reduces the likelihood you’ll spread it to others and offers bolstered protections against its worst impacts. It’s continued to hold up pretty well  Indeed, the fact a fairly high proportion of the local population (33 percent, far above the state average) has already gotten this booster was one factor in the declines we saw in recent weeks.

The local health department still offers free boosters. Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Review covid boundaries and precautions with those close to you — Uncertain times like this can be especially risky during the pandemic. It is a very good idea to have an honest conversation with those close to you about what precautions need to be taken and what your particular risks are.  This can save a lot of grief down the road, and it’s really important for everyone to have a clear idea about what they need to do to keep each other safe.

Support higher-risk people — Higher-risk people have faced atrocious treatment during this wave, with “back to normal” meaning the loss of access to spaces and services we used to have. Even as rates have declined many spaces still remain unsafe. Even groups in Asheville ostensibly dedicated to social justice have largely dropped all covid precautions, though we’re finally seeing some promising shifts on this front. So make a point of helping higher-risk people you know out with errands, food and finding safe ways to socialize and keep in touch. This will only become more important with the upcoming end of the covid emergency.

Unless a miracle happens, we’re set to mark a year anniversary of Asheville’s long covid wave next week. It did not have to be this way. It still doesn’t.

COVID WAVE ALERT — April 3, 2023

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this alert

• The promising decline of the past few weeks stalls hard, and with tourism once again increasing that could be very bad news

• For the moment though, local covid spread’s not getting substantially worse (or better). Continue to wear an N95 indoors, review covid precautions with those close to you and steer clear of particularly risky activities

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Readers, the last few alerts have brought relatively good news, with rates consistently dropping to their lowest levels in nearly a year. We thought this week we might very well be able to — finally! — lift this alert, as test positivity and virus in wastewater might decline to levels truly showing this wave was over.

Sadly, that didn’t happen. Instead rates stalled, which could be a really troubling sign.

Test positivity stayed put at 5.7 percent (up by a sliver from last week’s 5.6). What’s worrying here is the suddenness of the halt. Our graphs use N.C. Department of Health and Human Services numbers, which are a 14-day average of local covid tests. For test positivity to halt that quickly following some really promising declines doesn’t mean anything good.

Virus in wastewater also saw a promising decline end, and remains higher than this time last year. Combined with test positivity rates being where they are we clearly still have some substantial covid spread in our community.

Now this may change. A little over a month ago we saw a notable mini-spike that then quickly reversed course. Hell, we hope it does and this long wave finally ends.

But what makes this stall particularly ominous is the timing. One reason that we typically see covid rates plummet this time of year is reduced tourism. That industry is one of the biggest drivers of death and illness from the pandemic in this city. That’s a reason why it’s really important for community precautions to be particularly solid and why their widespread abandonment among many of Asheville’s communities has been so tragic.

As each week goes by tourism picks back up, inevitably meaning more infections. That brings back the possibility of a near-constant covid wave, with all the continuing devastation. Basically: if we can’t get out of a covid wave right now, when can we?

Steps to take

While rates are lower than they’ve been in a long time, they still indicate a substantial level of covid spread, so it’s important to keep up precautions. This is especially true as we might be about to see a resurgence in covid risks.

Wear an N95 in public places — This remains a good precaution to take regardless of covid level. If you’re running an errand or going to work or end up in any crowded public space you should be wearing an N95-level mask. It offers substantial protection even if no one else is masked and helps keep you and others safe, especially with the possibility that rates could — as we saw last Spring — spike back up due to a lack of more widespread community protections.

Likewise, rapid tests remain a really good precaution for close get-togethers with those outside your immediate household or circle and are a tool that shouldn’t be discarded even if rates keep getting lower. They’re especially essential during spring allergies, and it’s a good idea to take them if you’re feeling stuffed up. Knowing the difference between pollen and covid is key this time of year.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid highly crowded, maskless spaces — While they still carry very real risks, indoor spaces aren’t as dangerous as they were a month ago. That said, if a place is packed with maskless strangers or tourists it’s probably best to come back later or steer clear. The rates we have still indicate substantial covid spread and some real risks.

On this note, it’s worth still being very careful for any big events in your home. Throwing a birthday party? Plan now for everyone attending to take a rapid test, review covid precautions in advance, etc.

Get the omicron booster — While not bulletproof (it’s still essential to mask and avoid particularly risky situations), the bivalent/omicron booster reduces the possibility of infection, reduces the likelihood you’ll spread it to others and offers bolstered protections against its worst impacts. It’s continued to hold up pretty well  Indeed, the fact a fairly high proportion of the local population (32 percent, more than twice the state average) has already gotten this booster was one factor in the declines we saw in recent weeks.

The local health department still offers free boosters. Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Review covid boundaries and precautions with those close to you — Uncertain times like this can be especially risky during the pandemic. It is a very good idea to have an honest conversation with those close to you about what precautions need to be taken and what your particular risks are.  This can save a lot of grief down the road, and it’s really important for everyone to have a clear idea about what they need to do to keep each other safe.

Support higher-risk people — Higher-risk people have faced atrocious treatment during this wave, with “back to normal” meaning the loss of access to spaces and services we used to have. Even as rates decline many spaces still remain unsafe. Even groups in Asheville ostensibly dedicated to social justice have largely dropped all covid precautions. So make a point of helping higher-risk people you know out with errands, food and finding safe ways to socialize and keep in touch.

Honestly the news this week is exhausting. It’s also a reminder: either communities take far more steps to protect each other from covid or the virus continues to ravage our city. That’s the truth, and there’s no real choice but to face it.

COVID WAVE ALERT — March 27, 2023

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this alert

• With rates continuing to drop, Asheville may — finally – see our city’s longest covid wave come to an end

• But it will be at least another week or two before we can, for certain, determine that. Continue to wear an N95 in indoors and steer clear of particularly risky activities

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Hopefully readers, this is one of the last covid alerts we’ll have to do for some time. With the exception of the mini-spike a few weeks ago the news has been consistently good. Rates continue to drop and if they do so for another week or two Asheville’s nearly year-long covid wave will finally end.

Test positivity dropped to 5.6 percent, down from 6.4 last week. That’s narrowly above the 5 percent threshold that indicates substantial local covid spread and, when combined with the substantial presence of covid in wastewater, indicates a covid wave.

However, it will be at least another week or two before we can clearly verify that Asheville is finally out of this long and devastating covid wave.

Virus in wastewater rates also showed a steady decline, though still notably higher than this time last year.

Last week we said the news was cautiously optimistic, without discarding the caution. This week’s leaning a little more towards optimism. It’s clear that while the SoCon tournament was inevitably a superspreader event, on a larger community level it wasn’t enough to undo the welcome reductions in covid spread caused by comparatively lower tourism, a relatively high rate of locals getting the bivalent booster and some increased awareness following some of the awful damage done by long covid.

Hopefully, readers, we can finally lift this alert sometime in the coming weeks.

Steps to take

Rates this relatively low — but still indicating some very real covid spread — can be a tricky place. But for the time being it’s still good to keep up the basic precautions necessary the past few weeks until it’s clear this wave is actually gone (and some of them are a solid idea even after that).

Wear an N95 in public places — This remains a good precaution to take regardless of covid level. If you’re running an errand or going to work or end up in any crowded public space you should be wearing an N95-level mask. It offers substantial protection even if no one else is masked and helps keep you and others safe, especially with the possibility that rates could — as we saw last Spring — spike back up due to a lack of more widespread community protections.

Likewise, rapid tests remain a really good precaution for close get-togethers with those outside your immediate household or circle and are a tool that shouldn’t be discarded even if rates keep getting lower.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid highly crowded, maskless spaces — While they still carry very real risks, indoor spaces aren’t as dangerous as they were a month ago (or even last week). That said, if a place is packed with maskless strangers or tourists it’s probably best to come back later or steer clear. The rates we have still indicate substantial covid spread and some real risks.

On this note, it’s worth still being very careful for any big events in your home. Throwing a birthday party? Plan now for everyone attending to take a rapid test, review covid precautions in advance, etc.

Get the omicron booster — While not bulletproof (it’s still essential to mask and avoid particularly risky situations), the bivalent/omicron booster does both reduce the possibility of infection and offer bolstered protections against its worst impacts. It’s continued to hold up pretty well  Indeed, the fact a fairly high proportion of the local population (32 percent, more than twice the state average) has already gotten this booster is one factor in the current wave continuing to decline.

The local health department still offers free boosters. Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Review covid boundaries and precautions with those close to you — Transitional times like this can be especially risky during the pandemic. It is a very good idea to have an honest conversation with those close to you about what precautions need to be taken and what your particular risks are.  This can save a lot of grief down the road, and it’s really important for everyone to have a clear idea about what they need to do to keep each other safe.

Support higher-risk people — Higher-risk people have faced atrocious treatment during this wave, with “back to normal” meaning the loss of access to spaces and services we used to have. Even as rates decline many spaces still remain unsafe. Even groups in Asheville ostensibly dedicated to social justice have largely dropped all covid precautions. So make a point of helping higher-risk people you know out with errands, food and finding safe ways to socialize and keep in touch.

Moments like this bring both fear and optimism. It is always possible rates could suddenly shoot back up, but for now the news is very promising. Hopefully we’ll get some breathing room, and a community that takes care and solidarity far more seriously will emerge from the lessons of this long wave.

COVID WAVE ALERT — March 20, 2023

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this alert

• Another week of good news as covid rates plummet to their lowest levels since last Spring. If this keeps going, we might finally be out of the long wave

• That said, we’re not quite out of the wave yet, and that means it’s still a really good idea to wear an N95 indoors and avoid particularly risky spaces

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

We fortunately have another week of good news. This week key covid rates dropped and they dropped hard.

Test positivity declined to 6.4 percent (from 8.1) the lowest rate in nearly a year, and the closest we’ve been to seeing the wave’s end (if it consistently drops below 5 percent).

Combined with last week’s sharp decline this is, honestly, pretty promising. Fingers crossed.

For the last few weeks virus in wastewater rates have been a bit harder to read. While way down from their winter peaks, they’ve gone up and down at relatively higher levels than usual for this time of year. But this week they dropped solidly too. That’s a very good sign considering they’re the only major covid data measure that includes the virus’ spread among tourists.

That said, we are still not out of the wave yet. While risks are certainly lower than they’ve been in a long while, we are still in a covid wave. Test positivity above 5 percent still indicates a substantial amount of covid spread in a community.

We also still haven’t seen the full impacts of the SoCon basketball tournament/superspreader event. While some of the impacts that are reflected in this week’s very promising decline in rates, some of it’s still out.

To be clear, SoCon was a superspreader — you can’t hold a maskless, crowded sports tournament with a highly contagious virus out there and not have it turn into one — but in terms of overall community risk its impact might be outweighed by less tourism, a fairly high rate of bivalent boosters in the population, and other factors. It’s worth being cautiously optimistic, without discarding the caution.

Steps to take

We’re firmly in less risky territory now than we were two weeks ago, but the fact we’re not out of the wave yet means there’s still a real need to keep up some solid precautions. Hell, the more people do this the more likely we’ll finally see the damn thing end.

Wear an N95 in public places — This remains a good precaution to take regardless of covid level. If you’re running an errand or going to work or end up in any crowded public space you should be wearing an N95-level mask. It offers substantial protection even if no one else is masked and helps keep you and others safe, especially with the possibility that rates could — as we saw last Spring — spike back up due to a lack of more widespread community protections.

Likewise, rapid tests remain a really good precaution for close get-togethers with those outside your immediate household or circle and are a tool that shouldn’t be discarded even if rates keep getting lower.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid highly crowded, maskless spaces — While they still carry very real risks, indoor spaces aren’t as dangerous as they were a month ago (or even last week). That said, if a place is packed with maskless strangers or tourists it’s probably best to come back later or steer clear. The rates we have still indicate substantial covid spread and some very real risks.

On this note, it’s worth still being very careful for any big events in your home. Throwing a birthday party? Plan now for everyone attending to take a rapid test, review covid precautions in advance, etc.

Get the omicron booster — While not bulletproof (it’s still essential to mask and avoid particularly risky situations), the bivalent/omicron booster does both reduce the possibility of infection and offer bolstered protections against its worst impacts. It’s continued to hold up pretty well  Indeed, the fact a fairly high proportion of the local population (32 percent, more than twice the state average) has already gotten this booster is probably one factor in the current wave continuing to decline.

The local health department still offers free boosters. Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Review covid boundaries and precautions with those close to you — Transitional times like this can be especially risky during the pandemic. It is a very good idea to have an honest conversation with those close to you about what precautions need to be taken and what your particular risks are. This can save a lot of grief down the road, and it’s really important for everyone to have a clear idea about what they need to do to keep each other safe.

Support higher-risk people — Higher-risk people have faced atrocious treatment during this wave, with “back to normal” meaning the loss of access to spaces and services we used to have. Even as rates decline many spaces still remain unsafe. Even groups in Asheville ostensibly dedicated to social justice have largely dropped all covid precautions. So make a point of helping higher-risk people you know out with errands, food and finding safe ways to socialize and keep in touch.

We’re so close y’all, and the more of us keep our precautions solid during this transitional time, the better the odds we’ll finally have some very real breathing room.

COVID WAVE ALERT — March 13, 2023

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this alert

• In a bit of unexpectedly good news, a major covid rate saw a rapid drop after last week’s mini-spike. Risks are, at least for the moment, down. But SoCon and the return of increased tourism could shift that.

• It’s still necessary to wear an N95 indoors and a good idea to avoid particularly crowded, maskless indoor spaces. We’re still not out of this wave yet

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

While it’s fairly rare in reporting on the pandemic, occasionally we get some unexpectedly good news. This week we got some. After last week’s mini-spike in local test positivity rates (and the increased risk that went along with it), this week saw an even more rapid decline.

Test positivity dropped sharply, to 8.1 percent, down from 10.1 last week, and the lowest rate since Asheville’s long covid wave started last April.

That’s honestly a better scenario than it looked like we were heading for when rates suddenly spiked last week. That said, virus in wastewater remains a good bit above its usual rates this time of year, and is a reminder that while risks are down our city’s still definitely in a covid wave.

Also, test positivity numbers don’t yet reflect the results of the massive SoCon tournament, which is inevitably a super-spreader event each year (a virus couldn’t ask for a better breeding ground than a crowds of people screaming in an enclosed space again and again). Combined with wastewater staying higher than usual this time of year it’s worth not getting too comfortable until we get some more information.

That said, SoCon isn’t always guaranteed to spike covid rates by itself. Last year the overall annual dip in tourism and the decline of the first omicron wave were enough to hold rates down anyway in the weeks after. This year there’s far less public health precautions, but about a third of Asheville/Buncombe’s population has the updated booster, which might contain some of the spread.

We’ll see what happens.

Steps to take

While those cautions are necessary, the test positivity rate dropping this low this quickly is a solid indication that risks are at a lower level than they were. At least for the time being some activities can be done more safely than before.

Wear an N95 in public places — This remains a good precaution to take regardless of covid level. If you’re running an errand or going to work or end up in any crowded public space you should be wearing an N95. It offers substantial protection even if no one else is and helps keep you and others safe, especially with the possibility that rates could spike back up due to a lack of more widespread community protections.

Likewise, rapid tests remain a really good idea for close get-togethers with those outside your immediate household or circle and are a tool that shouldn’t be discarded even if rates keep getting lower.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid highly crowded, maskless spaces — While they still carry very real risks, indoor spaces aren’t as dangerous as they were a month ago (or even last week). That said, if a place is packed with maskless strangers or tourists it’s probably best to come back later or steer clear. The rates we have still indicate substantial covid spread.

On this note, it’s worth still being very careful for any big events in your home. Throwing a birthday party? Plan now for everyone attending to take a rapid test, review covid precautions in advance, etc.

Get the omicron booster — While not bulletproof (it’s still essential to mask and avoid particularly risky situations), the bivalent/omicron booster does both reduce the possibility of infection and offer bolstered protections against its worst impacts. It’s continued to hold up pretty well  Indeed, the fact a fairly high proportion of the local population (32 percent, more than twice the state average) has already gotten this booster is probably one factor in the current wave continuing to decline.

The local health department still offers free boosters. Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Review covid boundaries and precautions with those close to you — Transitional times like this can be especially risky during the pandemic. It is a very good idea to have an honest conversation with those close to you about what precautions need to be taken and what your particular risks are. This can save a lot of grief down the road, and it’s really important for everyone to have a clear idea about what they need to do to keep each other safe.

Support higher-risk people — Higher-risk people have faced atrocious treatment during this wave, losing access to spaces and services we used to have in the “back to normal” rush. Even as rates decline many spaces still remain unsafe. Even many spaces and groups in Asheville ostensibly dedicated to social justice have largely dropped all covid precautions. So make a point of helping higher-risk people you know out with errands, food and finding safe ways to socialize and keep in touch.

Believe me, we sympathize with the feeling of whiplash. Hell, we share it. We honestly don’t know what the next few weeks will bring, but hope it’s some breathing room. The more of us take this seriously the more likely we are to get there.

COVID WAVE ALERT — March 6, 2023

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this alert

• Rates shot back up this week, enough to indicate an increased risk of community spread. Sadly, zero precautions means our city never really leaves a covid wave

• It is again necessary to wear an N95 any time you’re in public, both indoors and in crowded outdoor spaces. Rapid test regularly and avoid particularly risky events (like crowded dancefloors)

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week’s update is one we really didn’t want to have to write, readers. Key measures of covid spread in our communities just shot up substantially.

Test positivity went up to 10.1 percent, from 9.1 last week. This doesn’t just stall a promising decline; it’s a real reverse. Given this time usually sees some of the lowest covid rates of the year, that’s really troubling.

Keep in mind this is the NCDHHS’ 14-day average. Due to spreading its measurements over a fairly wide period of time, that number generally doesn’t move up this quickly unless the most recent daily rates are really bad.

We haven’t seen rates rise since this winter’s earlier wave, and there seemed to be some pretty strong headwinds behind Asheville’s declining covid rates.

Wastewater isn’t quite as disturbing news, but rates are still above where they normally would be this time of year.

While there’s some chance rates may resume their decline in the next few weeks, it doesn’t look likely. This weekend saw Asheville host the SoCon tournament, which has been a massive superspreader event since literally the first days of covid hitting our town. Combined with tourism increasing as we head into the spring, the odds don’t look good.

What we’re seeing is further confirmation that our city is in a really dangerous situation: our baseline covid rates remain very high. By next month Asheville will have been in a covid wave — test positivity rates consistently above 5 percent and significant covid in wastewater — for a year.

This is not a typical situation when compared to other cities around the country, region or state. Most cities will see waves break, with test positivity rates generally resting around 3 to 6 percent after a wave. But the lowest Asheville’s rates generally get is between 9 and 10 percent.

That’s really, really bad, as it means there’s a constant, fairly high risk of infection that just continues to churn through our communities. This is reflected on other fronts as well, like the grim fact that Asheville’s covid death rate consistently remains one of the highest among major cities/counties in the state. Three more people just died from the virus in the past week, and that’s almost certainly an undercount.

Over this long wave we’ve delved into some of the major factors behind this. Tourism’s a huge part of it, as is the accompanying “tourism at all costs” mentality from local government and business.

That said, so is the fact that Asheville’s gone from the “maskiest mask” city to one where any covid protections whatsoever are a far more rare sight than they should be. Indeed, in public things have shifted from shaming those not wearing masks to targeting those who still do. By contrast it’s not uncommon to find more prevalent masking, more spaces requiring vaccination or masks indoors and more widespread precautions remaining in many other cities.

The results are ugly, but they’re pretty clear: Asheville’s going to be in a never-ending covid wave until more people here once again take the pandemic seriously.

Steps to take

Sadly this recent surge pushes risks back up to High after they’d just dipped to Substantial. So it’s necessary to take stricter precautions for the time being.

Wear an N95 mask. Rapid test. — Cloth and surgical masks don’t do much against omicron variants. You need to wear an N95-level mask any time you come into close contact with others outside those you live with (or outside of small groups who are taking careful precautions). Preferably double-mask with another mask over an N95. With Kraken being so incredibly infectious this isn’t something to relax on right now.

While it’s certainly really helpful if everyone in a place is wearing a mask, N95s offer substantial individual protection even if no one else is, especially when layered with another mask. They remain essential right now.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test at least three days after and isolate as much as possible until then. If you’re getting together in close quarters with people you don’t usually live with, everyone testing beforehand is a must.

Indeed, during a time like this when there’s a lot of uncertainty, it’s not a bad idea to rapid test a few times a week if you have the supplies to do so. That can help detect cases before they spread to others in your community or social circle.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid crowded indoor events, dining and drinking — The fact this isn’t particularly popular doesn’t mean it’s not necessary. Given the recent surge in rates it’s best to skip being maskless indoors around a bunch of strangers whenever you can.

Sadly, even in more ostensibly left-leaning communities people are still facing a lot of pressure to come, unmasked, to risky events. That does not change the hard fact that taking this precaution is still necessary.

Limit errands — Errands still hold some very real risks, so it’s worth keeping what you can to curbside pick-up or delivery until rates go down more. If you do need to go into a store, wear an N95 and make it quick. If you can time it for a less busy time, do.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. We struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other. There’s never a time when mutual aid doesn’t matter.

Get the omicron booster — While not bulletproof (it’s still essential to mask and avoid particularly risky situations), the bivalent/omicron booster does both reduce the possibility of infection and offer bolstered protections against its worst impacts. It’s continued to hold up pretty well  Indeed, the fact a fairly high proportion of the local population (32 percent, more than twice the state average) has already gotten this booster is probably one factor in the current wave finally starting to decline.

The local health department still offers free boosters. Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Stay vigilant and communicate — This is particularly important when covid risks are starting to spike; if you wait to strengthen your precautions until rates are worse it’s going to be too late.

Hell, odds are anyone reading this has already faced pressure to stop wearing a mask and taking basic precautions. Don’t.

Instead talk to each other, be clear about what the risks are right now and what you and those close to you need to do to navigate this wave. If someone’s doing something dangerous, even unintentionally, say so. Many of us live with others with a variety of risk levels, and it’s important to be honest so we can all figure out how to best navigate that.

If you need help with something, ask. If you think someone you know might need help, ask them. Check in on higher-risk folks you know (including if you’re higher-risk yourself) and see how their needs can be met.

As it stands, it’s likely rates will continue to rise at least for a few weeks. Every step you can take helps keep you and those around you safe.

COVID WAVE ALERT — February 26, 2023

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this alert

• We’re seeing some improvements on the local covid front, but things are still up in the air. Rates are still going down — enough that risks are less than they were a few weeks ago — but at a slower rate.

• While some of the stricter precautions can be relaxed, it’s still necessary to wear an N95 in public indoor spaces, avoid particularly risky events and review covid protocols with those close to you

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Fortunately, after last week’s mixed news on Asheville’s covid front, things leaned a bit more towards the hopeful side this week. Risks are declining. Though it’s not as quickly as one might hope — and there are still some causes for concern — the Blade‘s reducing the risk level down a notch.

Test positivity dropped again this week, to 9.1 percent from 10 last week.

That’s good news, and it takes us solidly down from a high transmission level. Though covid is still a substantial risk in our communities it’s not running nearly as rampant as it was back in early January or even a few weeks ago.

Virus in wastewater is more complicated news. Rates aren’t going up and have stabilized at a relatively low level. But that level is still a good bit higher than it was after last year’s omicron wave.

Indeed, that’s been a feature of this incredibly long covid wave: things come down, but at a higher level than before. That’s not good, as it means there’s a life-altering, even potentially deadly virus constantly circulating through our communities at a fairly substantial level, and it makes Asheville far more vulnerable to major surges like we’ve seen for nearly a year.

Right now, despite some hyper-contagious new variants and the occasional super-spreader event, we have a relative lack of tourism and the unseasonably warm weather’s meant more people have met outside in recent weeks. Those latter two — combined with some people and groups still taking this seriously — are driving down rates, but not as low as we’ve seen before.

But until we see far more widespread precautions, which have sadly been abandoned here to a far greater degree than many other left-leaning cities, that might well be where we are. It comes with an ugly cost. Asheville/Buncombe has consistently covid death rates that are among the highest of all of N.C.’s major urban counties. That’s still the case. We’re currently a close second. “Back to normal” is a horrific thing.

Steps to take

As mentioned above, the test positivity rate is now solidly below 10 percent. That does indicate some very real reductions in the risk of infection in Asheville. It means that some precautions, though certainly not all, can be relaxed with a measure of safety.

Wear an N95 in public places — This remains a good precaution to take regardless of covid level. If you’re running an errand or going to work or end up in any crowded public space you should be wearing an N95. It offers substantial protection even if no one else is and helps keep you and others safe, especially with the possibility that rates could spike back up due to a lack of more widespread community protections.

Likewise, rapid tests remain a really good idea for close get-togethers and are a tool that shouldn’t be discarded even if rates keep getting lower.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid highly crowded, maskless spaces — While they still carry very real risks, indoor spaces aren’t as dangerous as they were a few weeks ago. That said, if a place is packed with maskless strangers or tourists it’s probably best to come back later or steer clear. The rates we have still indicate substantial covid spread.

On this note, it’s worth still being very careful for any big events in your home. Throwing a birthday party? Plan now for everyone attending to take a rapid test, review covid precautions, etc.

Get the omicron booster — While not bulletproof (it’s still essential to mask and avoid particularly risky situations), the bivalent/omicron booster does both reduce the possibility of infection and offer bolstered protections against its worst impacts. It’s continued to hold up pretty well  Indeed, the fact a fairly high proportion of the local population (32 percent, more than twice the state average) has already gotten this booster is probably one factor in the current wave continuing to decline.

The local health department still offers free boosters. Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Review covid boundaries and precautions with those close to you — Transitional times like this can be especially risky during the pandemic. It is a very good idea to sit down and have an honest conversation with those close to you about what precautions need to be taken and what your particular risks are. This can save a lot of grief down the road, and it’s really important for everyone to have a clear idea about what they need to do to keep each other safe.

Support higher-risk people — Higher-risk people have faced atrocious treatment during this wave, losing access to spaces and services we used to have in the “back to normal” rush. Even as rates decline many spaces still remain unsafe. Even many spaces and groups ostensibly dedicated to social justice have largely dropped all covid precautions in Asheville. So make a point of helping higher-risk people you know out with errands, food and finding safe ways to socialize and keep in touch.

To be honest, readers, we’re as exhausted as y’all are. Some in our co-op are higher-risk, and we all take covid seriously. It’s honestly a pretty isolating path sometimes. But it matters, and everyone in this town fighting back against covid is keeping not just helping themselves but countless others. The more of us do it, the safer we all are. Keep going.

COVID WAVE ALERT — February 20, 2023

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this alert

• Asheville’s covid front has some very mixed news lately, with the XBB 1.5 (“Kraken”) still driving superspreader events in an area where most precautions have been abandoned, even as a drop in tourism reduces risks on other fronts

• While some key covid rates are dropping once again, our city’s still in a pretty risky situation. Until we see steadier decline it’s necessary to wear an N95 in public, rapid test regularly and avoid dangerous settings (like crowded dance floors)

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

The past few weeks saw some very good news, some bad news and, this time, some very mixed news.

On the hopeful side, test positivity rates in Asheville are once again on the decline, after halting last week due to the hyper-contagious XBB 1.5 (“Kraken”) strain hitting the city.

Test positivity dropped to 10 percent, down from 11.1 last week.

That said, while this decline is certainly welcome news it still represents a considerable slowdown from the sharp drops we’d seen in the weeks before.

Virus in wastewater, meanwhile, stayed about flat.

What’s going on here? Well on the one hand XBB 1.5 variant is hitting Asheville. It’s incredibly contagious, so it turns things like indoor, maskless dance parties and crowded bars into superspreader events.

At the same time tourism, which is a massive driver of covid infections and deaths in Asheville, is at is lowest point of the year.

As we’ve talked about here before, Asheville’s covid situation is unusually awful compared to other American, even Southern cities. We’ve consistently been in a covid wave since last April, something that’s almost unheard of elsewhere.

The rapid, unusually high decline in precautions here — as the city’s party culture and “you do you” bullshit mostly pushed out the wider sense of communal care from earlier in the pandemic — and tourism are two major drivers of this. One is, sadly, still churning along, but the other has dropped like a rock and that is overall reducing covid risks. But that’s an average and while it gives us some useful information it shouldn’t obscure the reality that plenty of locals are still getting covid right now. Basically, it’s still not a wise time to throw a dance party.

Steps to take

Test positivity is exactly on the threshold between high and substantial risks levels. But with the presence of the “Kraken” variant, several recent superspreader events and a lot of uncertainty the Blade‘s decided to keep our recommended precautions where they are until we see a more sustained decline.

Wear an N95 mask. Rapid test. — Cloth and surgical masks don’t do much against omicron variants. You need to wear an N95-level mask any time you come into close contact with others outside those you live with (or outside of small groups who are taking careful precautions). Preferably double-mask with another mask over an N95. With Kraken being so incredibly infectious this isn’t something to relax on right now.

While it’s certainly really helpful if everyone in a place is wearing a mask, N95s offer substantial individual protection even if no one else is, especially when layered with another mask. They remain essential right now.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test at least three days after and isolate as much as possible until then. If you’re getting together in close quarters with people you don’t usually live with, everyone testing beforehand is a must.

Indeed, during a time like this when there’s a lot of uncertainty, it’s not a bad idea to rapid test a few times a week if you have the supplies to do so. That can help detect cases before they spread to others in your community or social circle.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid crowded indoor events, dining and drinking — The fact this isn’t particularly popular doesn’t mean it’s not necessary. Given recent events it’s best to skip being maskless indoors around a bunch of strangers whenever you can.

Sadly, even in more ostensibly left-leaning communities people are still facing a lot of pressure to come, unmasked, to risky events. That does not change the hard fact that taking this precaution is still necessary.

Limit errands — Errands still hold some very real risks, so it’s worth keeping what you can to curbside pick-up or delivery until rates go down more. If you do need to go into a store, wear an N95 and make it quick. If you can time it for a less busy time, do.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. We struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other. There’s never a time when mutual aid doesn’t matter.

Get the omicron booster — While not bulletproof (it’s still essential to mask and avoid particularly risky situations), the bivalent/omicron booster does both reduce the possibility of infection and offer bolstered protections against its worst impacts. It’s continued to hold up pretty well  Indeed, the fact a fairly high proportion of the local population (32 percent, more than twice the state average) has already gotten this booster is probably one factor in the current wave finally starting to decline.

The local health department still offers free boosters. Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Stay vigilant and communicate — This is particularly important when covid risks are in an uncertain place. After a long winter and the occasionally promising news of the past few weeks, it’s tempting to let down one’s guard a bit.

Hell, odds are anyone reading this has already faced pressure to stop wearing a mask and taking basic precautions. Don’t.

Instead talk to each other, be clear about what the risks are right now and what you and those close to you need to do to navigate this wave. If someone’s doing something dangerous, even unintentionally, say so. Many of us live with others with a variety of risk levels, and it’s important to be honest so we can all figure out how to best navigate that.

If you need help with something, ask. If you think someone you know might need help, ask them. Check in on higher-risk folks you know (including if you’re higher-risk yourself) and see how their needs can be met.

With tourism at its low point, communities here have a real opportunity to get some desperately-needed breathing room from this long covid wave. But doing nothing and saying nothing won’t get us there.

COVID WAVE ALERT — February 12, 2023

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this alert

• The news this week is not good, as thing have quickly taken a very troubling turn on the Asheville covid front. The recent, promising decline has been sharply halted due to the ultra-contagious XBB 1.5, “Kraken” variant hitting the city pretty hard

• Given this it’s necessary to wear an N95 indoors or in crowded outdoor spaces, regularly rapid test and avoid particularly risky spaces like crowded bars or indoor events

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Unfortunately this week’s covid news isn’t good. After weeks of very promising, real declines in covid risk levels in the Asheville area this week saw a sharp reversal, halting the recent progress.

That’s almost certainly due to the ultra-contagious XBB 1.5 variant, dubbed “Kraken,” that’s currently hitting Asheville pretty hard and sending rates spiking across the state. Test positivity stayed at 11.1 percent, the same as last week.

So why is that bad news? Because test positivity is calculated as a 14-day average, meaning that for the rapid declines of the last few weeks to suddenly stop dead we’re seeing some really ugly recent spikes.

Normally, virus in wastewater measurements would give us some clarity, as they respond pretty rapidly to sudden covid surges. But for some inexplicable reason Buncombe’s sewer district didn’t send in readings this week. It was the only major urban system in the state, besides Winston-Salem, not to do so. The vast majority of the systems that did, however, saw serious spikes.

XBB 1.5 is a really nasty variant, even more contagious than its omicron peers. While far from new its been gaining rapidly in recent weeks.

Some of the factors we mentioned last week, especially a relative lack of tourism this time of year, may curb its spread some, but for the time being its necessary to be really careful.

Steps to take

This is, until we know more, basically a “hold the line” situation. If you saw the good news of the last few weeks and were thinking of relaxing precautions a bit more; don’t. Wait on big gatherings for a bit. Make sure not to stint on wearing your N95.

Wear an N95 mask. Rapid test. — Cloth and surgical masks don’t do much against omicron variants. You need to wear an N95-level mask any time you come into close contact with others outside those you live with (or outside of small groups who are taking careful precautions). Preferably double-mask with another mask over an N95. With Kraken being so incredibly infectious this isn’t something to relax on right now.

While it’s certainly really helpful if everyone in a place is wearing a mask, N95s offer substantial individual protection even if no one else in an area is wearing one, especially when layered with another mask. They remain essential right now.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test at least three days after and isolate as much as possible until then. If you’re getting together in close quarters with people you don’t usually live with, testing beforehand is a must.

Indeed, during a time like this when there’s a lot of uncertainty, it’s not a bad idea to rapid test a few times a week if you have the supplies to do so. That can help detect cases before they spread to others in your community or social circle.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid crowded indoor events, dining and drinking — The fact this isn’t particularly popular doesn’t mean it’s not necessary. Given the sudden surge it’s best to skip being maskless indoors around a bunch of strangers whenever you can.

Sadly, even in more ostensibly left-leaning communities people are still facing a lot of pressure to come, unmasked, to risky events. That does not change the hard fact that taking this precaution is still necessary with the current risk level.

Limit errands — Errands still hold some very real risks, so it’s worth keeping what you can to curbside pick-up or delivery until rates go down more. If you do need to go into a store, wear an N95 and make it quick. If you can time it for a less busy time, do.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. We struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other. There’s never a time when mutual aid doesn’t matter.

Get the omicron booster — While not bulletproof (it’s still essential to mask and avoid particularly risky situations), the bivalent/omicron booster does both reduce the possibility of infection and offer bolstered protections against its worst impacts. It’s continued to hold up pretty well  Indeed, the fact a fairly high proportion of the local population (32 percent, more than twice the state average) has already gotten this booster is probably one factor in the current wave finally starting to decline.

The local health department still offers free boosters. Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Stay vigilant and communicate — This is particularly important when covid risks may be about to shoot up again. After a long winter and the promising news of the past few weeks, it’s tempting to let down one’s guard a bit.

Hell, odds are anyone reading this has already faced pressure to stop wearing a mask and taking basic precautions. Don’t.

Instead talk to each other, be clear about what the risks are right now and what you and those close to you need to do to navigate this wave. If someone’s doing something dangerous, even unintentionally, say so. Many of us live with others with a variety of risk levels, and it’s important to be honest so we can all figure out how to best navigate that.

If you need help with something, ask. If you think someone you know might need help, ask them. Check in on higher-risk folks you know (including if you’re higher-risk yourself) and see how their needs can be met.

Times like this — when cautious hope is replaced by yet more dire warning signs — are deeply difficult. But we’ve made it through this before and, if we support each other, we can make it through this again.

COVID WAVE ALERT — February 5, 2023

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this alert

• We have another week of good news, with local covid rates seeing another substantial decline, though still not quite to the point where precautions can be further relaxed

• Until rates decline further (fingers crossed), it’s important to still wear an N95 indoors or in any crowded space, test regularly and be upfront about risk levels

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Fortunately we have another week of relatively good news to report. Covid rates again declined substantially this week. Though still note quite out of fairly high territory we could see some real reductions in risks if this keeps up.

Test positivity kept dropping, to 11.1 percent, down from 13.4 last week. That’s another very real drop, though it remains above the 10 percent threshold that indicates high levels of local covid risk.

Virus in wastewater also kept dropping sharply, a sure sign that risks are still on their way down.

Unlike the Fall and earlier in the Winter, when promising declines kept getting halted or even reversed by big holidays and tourism events, this fortunately comes during Asheville’s slow season for tourism. Indeed, the relative lack of tourism is one of the main drivers of this recent drop in covid risks. From the start Asheville’s tourism industry — and business and government’s obsession with keeping it going at all costs — have been a major driver of the unusually high rates of death and covid risks we’ve seen here.

Now, with tourism dropping at least for a bit, more people again taking the pandemic at least seriously enough to put on a mask and a relatively high level of locals getting the bivalent booster that holds up relatively well against the most recent omicron strains, the area is seeing a very welcome reprieve. Though we’re still not out of our city’s long covid wave yet, another month of declines like this and we very well might be. Finally.

Steps to take

It may seen somewhat contradictory for us to tout the good news of seriously declining local covid rates combined with cautions that risks are still relatively high, but for much of the past year Asheville’s covid rates were very, unusually, catastrophically bad. They hit that territory again earlier this winter but now have dropped sharply. But they were so astronomically high that even a sharp decline still doesn’t get us out of the covid wave yet. As we said above, test positivity rates above 10 percent still show some very real risks.

That said, things are still better than they are. If last week saw us out of “stay the hell home” territory, this one takes us closer to “substantial but not high” local covid risks.

But we’re not quite there yet, so for the time being the Blade recommends keeping precautions largely at the same level they were last week.

Wear an N95 mask. Rapid test. — Cloth and surgical masks don’t do much against omicron variants. You need to wear an N95-level mask any time you come into close contact with others outside those you live with (or outside of small groups who are taking careful precautions). Preferably double-mask with another mask over an N95. With rates still fairly high it’s really important to do this pretty much any time you’re in indoor public spaces.

While it’s certainly really helpful if everyone in a place is wearing a mask, N95s offer substantial individual protection even if no one else in an area is wearing one. They remain essential right now.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test at least three days after and isolate as much as possible until then. If you’re getting together in close quarters with people you don’t usually live with, testing beforehand is a must.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid crowded indoor events, dining and drinking — The fact this isn’t particularly popular doesn’t mean it’s not necessary. While it’s not quite necessary, earlier this winter, to completely avoid bars and restaurants, it’s best to skip being maskless indoors around a bunch of strangers.

Sadly, even in more ostensibly left-leaning communities people are still facing a lot of pressure to come, unmasked, to risky events. That does not change the hard fact that taking this precaution is still necessary with the current risk level.

Limit errands — Errands still hold some very real risks, so it’s worth keeping what you can to curbside pick-up or delivery until rates go down more. If you do need to go into a store, wear an N95 and make it quick. If you can time it for a less busy time, do.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. We struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other. There’s never a time when mutual aid doesn’t matter.

Get the omicron booster — While not bulletproof (it’s still essential to mask and avoid particularly risky situations), the bivalent/omicron booster does both reduce the possibility of infection and offer bolstered protections against its worst impacts. Even with new variants hitting the area it’s still held up pretty well. Indeed, the fact a fairly high proportion of the local population has already gotten this booster is probably one factor in the current wave finally starting to decline.

The local health department still offers free boosters. Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Stay vigilant and communicate — This is particularly important when rates are going down but still remain at a really high level. It’s tempting to just ditch all precautions quickly, which would still be very damaging right now.

Odds are anyone reading this has already faced pressure to stop wearing a mask and taking basic precautions. Don’t.

Instead talk to each other, be clear about what the risks are right now and what you and those close to you need to do to navigate this wave. If someone’s doing something dangerous, even unintentionally, say so. Many of us live with others with a variety of risk levels, and it’s important to be honest so we can all figure out how to best navigate that.

If you need help with something, ask. If you think someone you know might need help, ask. Check in on higher-risk folks you know (including if you’re higher-risk yourself) and see how their needs can be met.

With all the sudden, often awful reversals of the pandemic, moments like this can feel especially precarious. But it’s important to note when risks go down, when we can with a bit more safety reconnect and help each other out. Indeed, covid will keep dropping more sharply, more quickly the more we keep taking this seriously and watch out for each other.

COVID WAVE ALERT — January 29, 2023

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this alert

• Local covid risks have seen some very real declines. This is good news, though rates still remain relatively high

• Fortunately, we’re no longer in “stay the hell home” territory. The strictest precautions aren’t as necessary, but it’s still important to wear an N95 indoors, avoid crowded indoors spaces, and test when necessary

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Readers, we finally have (relatively) good news this week. The sky high covid rates we’d seen since late December dropped. By a lot. Risks are, however you look at it, considerably less than they were two weeks ago.

Test positivity dropped like a rock, to 13.4 percent down from 16.1 last week. That’s a large decline in a very short period of time.

Virus in wastewater showed a similar rapid decline, dropping more sharply and more quickly than last winter’s omicron wave.

As y’all know, the Blade believes in honesty. We don’t sugarcoat it when things are getting worse (as they were about a month ago) but also are direct when dangers are provably less than they were.

What’s going on? Winter waves tend to be sharper than their counterparts at other times of the year, rapidly increasing and then rapidly declining. So some of this is just the nature of the virus during this season.

But there’s more going on. Tourism is a massive driver of the pandemic in Asheville (“tourism is killing us” became widespread during the past few years for a reason) and this time of the year is, fortunately, when it tapers off for awhile.

Also this winter didn’t see the introduction of a completely new strain, like the last two did. While the multiple omicron variants running amok are plenty damaging, they’re still part of the same family that’s been plaguing our city for over a year. A lot of people have had some exposure, and the bivalent boosters — based on omicron variants — have held up relatively well.

Then there’s a factor that’s harder to measure but has a real impact: more locals are taking covid seriously. Pandemics are stubborn things, and from what we’re seeing in multiple communities in Asheville more people are taking at least a few steps away from “back to normal” and taking more precautions with regular masking, testing, etc. That’s helped too.

That said, while the rates are down considerably, they’re still at a fairly high level, they’ve just dropped sharply from a catastrophic one. We’ll need at least a few more weeks of this to finally be truly out of the winter wave.

Steps to take

We are, fortunately, out of “stay the hell home” territory (though not nearly as much for those of us who are higher-risk). Things are definitely not great on Asheville’s pandemic front, but risk levels are a good deal lower than they were even last week. Because of that you can scale back some of the stricter precautions necessary when rates are skyrocketing.

Wear an N95 mask. Rapid test. — Cloth and surgical masks don’t do much against omicron variants. You need to wear an N95-level mask any time you come into close contact with others outside those you live with (or outside of small groups who are taking careful precautions). Preferably double-mask with another mask over an N95. With rates still fairly high it’s really important to do this in indoor public spaces.

While it’s certainly really helpful if everyone in a place is wearing a mask, N95s offer substantial individual protection even if no one else in an area is wearing one. They remain essential right now.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test at least three days after and isolate as much as possible until then. If you’re getting together in close quarters with people you don’t usually live with, testing beforehand is a must.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid crowded indoor events, dining and drinking — The fact this isn’t particularly popular doesn’t mean it’s not necessary. While it’s not quite as necessary as it was to completely avoid bars and restaurants, it’s best to skip being maskless indoors around a bunch of strangers.

Sadly, even in more ostensibly left-leaning communities people are still facing a lot of pressure to come, unmasked, to risky events. That does not change the hard fact that taking this precaution is still really necessary with the current risk level.

Limit errands — Errands still hold some very real risks, so it’s worth keeping what you can to curbside pick-up or delivery until rates go down more. If you do need to go into a store, wear an N95 and make it quick.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. We struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other. There’s never a time when mutual aid doesn’t matter.

Get the omicron booster — While not bulletproof (it’s still essential to mask and avoid particularly risky situations), the bivalent/omicron booster does both reduce the possibility of infection and offer bolstered protections against its worst impacts. Even with new variants hitting the area it’s still held up pretty well. Indeed, the fact a fairly high proportion of the local population has already gotten this booster is probably one factor in the current wave finally starting to decline.

The local health department still offers free boosters. Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Stay vigilant and communicate — This is particularly important when rates are going down but still remain at a really high level. It’s tempting to just ditch all precautions quickly, which would still be very damaging right now.

Odds are anyone reading this has already faced pressure to stop wearing a mask and taking basic precautions. Don’t.

Instead talk to each other, be clear about what the risks are right now and what you and those close to you need to do to navigate this wave. If someone’s doing something dangerous, even unintentionally, say so. Many of us live with others with a variety of risk levels, and it’s important to be honest so we can all figure out how to best navigate that.

If you need help with something, ask. If you think someone you know might need help, ask. Check in on higher-risk folks you know (including if you’re higher-risk yourself) and see how their needs can be met.

If all goes well, Asheville will have a bit of breathing room on the covid front in a few weeks. Every time you and those around you take the pandemic seriously that gets a little closer to reality.

COVID WAVE ALERT — January 22, 2023

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this alert

• While we’re seeing some positive signs that the winter wave is slowing, covid rates in the Asheville area remain incredibly high 

• We’re still in “Stay the hell home whenever you can” territory until rates drop a good deal more. Wearing an N95 in any public situation is a must, as is testing before meeting anyone outside your household

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

For the first time since mid-December the state Department of Health and Human Services finally put out its full weekly covid data. While the results aren’t entirely negative — there are some real signs the winter wave may be slowing down — they’re not particularly good either. Covid risk rates remain incredibly high in the Asheville area.

Virus in wastewater, which had been disturbingly high the past few weeks, kept going up but slowed a bit. Still, it’s still at rates not seen since the first omicron wave, which is bad news for the time being.

Test positivity rates saw a more promising decline, dropping to 16.1 percent. State figures, finally released, show it at 18.7 percent a week before.

But while that’s a significant drop, it’s still a ways above the 15 percent rate that indicates a catastrophic risk of community spread. It will take at least another week or two of similar declines for Asheville to see substantially reduced covid risks.

The holidays finally being over and our city entering the least tourist-driven time of the year are no doubt helping curb the winter wave, but we’re far from out of it yet.

Steps to take

While the news isn’t entirely bad this week, the continuing high levels of covid spread mean that strict precautions are still necessary to avoid infection as much as possible.

STAY THE HELL HOME — It’s still important to stay home as much as possible until rates go down a good bit more. At some points this will not be possible due to work, emergencies or other situations when you have no choice. But avoid going any time you can: the less you and those in your household are exposed right now the safer you are.

So avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague. Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any indoor errand you can put off for awhile, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in a packed line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid in unlucky enough circumstances.

Unless someone is in your household or in a group that you’ve set up clear testing and covid agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being, barring a lot of testing beforehand.

WEAR AN N95 AND RAPID TEST A LOT — An N95-level mask (or better) is absolutely necessary. Anything less simply will not cut it.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one, but right now everyone should be wearing one (and if you’re running an event, you should require it). As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or intentionally go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for at least three days and take one. Twelve hours later take another. This practice works and has literally saved lives.

If you’re seeing anyone outside your immediate household/pod in close circumstances, everyone involved needs to at least take one rapid test (preferably two, 12 hours apart).

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests, N95 and KN95 masks to those in need. If you have insurance, most pharmacy chains will give you eight free rapid tests a month. Use that, and share the tests you don’t use with others who need them.

GET THE DAMN BIVALENT BOOSTER — Despite the menagerie of variants attacking our community, the bivalent/omicron booster is, so far, holding up relatively well. This booster doesn’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid it boosts resistance to infection and reduces the likelihood of you spreading it to others as well. It’s not bulletproof, and has to be done alongside other measures like masks and testing, but it is an important line of defense.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE STRICT ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take covid seriously. It has not gone away simply because a lot of people are acting like it has. This has led to some real danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the “back to normal” status quo. While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too. Mental health is not an excuse for being dangerously reckless.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly hazardous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

We’re still seeing the effects of long covid — people’s lives and immune systems wrecked, especially after repeated infection — mount.

The hard fact is that anyone not taking basic covid precautions right now is betraying their communities and their friends. Thousands in our city will have to suffer the damage from that for the rest of their lives.

Hopefully the dangers won’t be as bad in a few weeks, if the current promising declines continue. But as it stands we need to hold the line and help each other even when it’s frustrating and difficult. It matters.

COVID WAVE ALERT — January 15, 2023

• The Asheville area remains in the middle of a devastating wave, with covid rates similar to where they were last winter. Risks are very, very high right now

• We’re thoroughly in “Stay the hell home whenever you can” territory. It’s essential to to wear an N95 in any public situation and test before meeting anyone outside your household

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

We still don’t have full information from the state department of health this week, but what we do have — combined with federal CDC data — show catastrophically high risk levels. We are fully in the middle of an ugly winter wave, with risk levels similar to first omicron wave that hit last winter.

Virus in wastewater, for example, skyrocketed this week.

As you can see, rates remain about as high as they were during last winter’s omicron wave, and that was the worst wave we’ve ever seen.

On the test positivity front, state officials refused to release local data for another week, citing unexplained “technical difficulties.” If they finally release it this coming week we’ll have been without for nearly a month.

CDC positivity rates put Asheville/Buncombe at 17.9 percent, down slightly from last week’s 19.2 percent. They use a seven-day average rather than a 14-day, which can be prone to moving more quickly. However, it does show rates still incredibly high; well above the 15 percent threshold that shows catastrophic levels of covid risk.

Unlike last year’s wave however, this one is driven by multiple highly contagious variants, all resistant to many existing medications and spreading very rapidly in a city where health protections have, for the most part, been completely abandoned.

And yes, it’s still killing people. While more widespread vaccination does provide some real protection against the worst consequences, 13 people still died of covid here over the past two weeks. That’s just the confirmed deaths, and doesn’t count those dead from long covid. It is certainly an undercount.

Steps to take

There’s no way around this: risk levels are so high right now that failing to take some pretty strict precautions will almost certainly mean illness for you and those close to you. Given that health impacts can worsen with repeat covid infections, even with vaccines and boosters, it can potentially do far worse.

STAY THE HELL HOME — As much as you possibly can, stay home during the next few weeks. At some points this will not be possible due to work, emergencies or other situations when you have no choice. But avoid going any time you can: the less you and those in your household are exposed right now the safer you are.

So avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague. Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for awhile, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being, barring a lot of testing.

WEAR AN N95 AND RAPID TEST A LOT — An N95-level mask (or better) is absolutely necessary. Anything less simply will not cut it.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one, but right now everyone should be wearing one (and if you’re running an event, you should require it). As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for at least three days and take one. Twelve hours later take another. This practice works and has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET THE DAMN BIVALENT BOOSTER — Despite the menagerie of variants attacking our community, the bivalent/omicron booster is, so far, holding up relatively well. This booster doesn’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid it boosts resistance to infection and reduces the likelihood of you spreading it to others as well.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE STRICT ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take covid seriously. It has not gone away simply because a lot of people are acting like it has. This has led to some real danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the “back to normal” status quo. While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too. Mental health is not an excuse for being a dangerously reckless ass.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly hazardous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

We’re still seeing the effects of long covid — people’s lives and immune systems wrecked, especially after repeated infection — mount.

The hard fact is that anyone not taking basic covid precautions right now is betraying their communities and their friends. Thousands in our city will have to suffer the damage from that for the rest of their lives.

In the meantime, plenty of us have experience at making it through pandemic winters. As harsh and difficult as they are, it’s not impossible if people actually decide to care about each other and act accordingly.

“We keep us safe” is still true. Let’s hope more put it into practice.

COVID WAVE ALERT — January 8, 2023

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Readers, it’s a bleak week on multiple fronts. The covid alert we normally would’ve published last week was delayed because the North Carolina health department took an entire week off reporting the basic information that’s key to knowing the health and life risks we face. But when they came back this week much of what they did release was outdated or incomplete. The most recent wastewater data was Dec. 21, and they didn’t bother to update local test positivity rates at all. That leaves us without the two most accurate measures of covid spread in a time when it was already skyrocketing.

So we’ve had to go further afield. The federal Centers for Disease Control still lists local positivity rates, and right now Buncombe’s is a catastrophic 19.2 percent, up sharply from the 12.2 percent we saw the last time the state bothered to tell us the local risk of catching a potentially deadly virus. They also show the rise in recent days as nearly a straight line.

That rate is really, really, really bad, as is the fact that it’s risen so much so quickly. This winter wave is shaping up to potentially be even worse than the one before, especially as there’s now nearly zero public health precautions.

The last wastewater data reported, while now heavily outdated, still shows rates high — higher than the same time last year — and rapidly rising. This is driven not just by a single variant, like last year, but by several highly contagious variants. The particularly awful XBB 1.5 variant can both reinfect those who’ve recently been hit by other omicron strains and is particularly medication resistant.

We are thoroughly back into “stay the hell home as much as you can” territory. The coming weeks are going to be very dangerous and far, far too many are still pretending that the obvious isn’t happening.

Steps to take

The risk levels are now so catastrophically high that getting through the next few weeks without getting covid and spreading it to others requires strict precautions. Winter waves tend to be sharp and very severe.

STAY THE HELL HOME — So we’re back here. As much as you possibly can, stay home during the next few weeks. At some points this will not be possible due to work, emergencies or other situations when you have no choice. But avoid it any time you can: the less you and those in your household go out right now, the safer you are.

So avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague. Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for awhile, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being barring a lot of testing.

WEAR AN N95 AND RAPID TEST A LOT — An N95-level mask (or better) is absolutely necessary. Anything less simply will not cut it.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one, but right now everyone should be wearing one (and if you’re running an event, you should require it). As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for at least three days and take one. Twelve hours later take another. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET THE DAMN BIVALENT BOOSTER — Despite the menagerie of variants attacking our community, the bivalent/omicron booster is, so far, holding up relatively well. This booster doesn’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid it reduces

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE STRICT ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take covid seriously. It has not gone away simply because a lot of people are acting like it has. This has led to some real danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the “back to normal” status quo. While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too. Mental health is not an excuse for being a dangerously reckless ass.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly hazardous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

We’re still seeing the effects of long covid — people’s lives and immune systems wrecked, especially after repeated infection — mount.

The hard fact is that anyone not taking basic covid precautions right now is betraying their communities and their friends. Thousands in our city will have to suffer the damage from that for the rest of their lives.

We have to revive our reminder from the worst of last summer’s wave: just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

Act like it.

COVID WAVE ALERT — December 24, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Unfortunately Asheville’s getting covid for the holidays. This week the long-feared winter wave measurably started to hit our city. Test positivity shot up rapidly, to 12.2 percent, from 9.5 percent last week. That’s a 14-day average, so it takes some truly awful numbers in the past week to escalate it that fast. That means that the risk of covid in our community is bad and getting worse.

Virus in wastewater stayed roughly the same, but as we noted last week those numbers were already fairly high even compared to last winter.

Believe us, readers, this is not the news we wanted to bring. We hoped that our city might have a bit more breathing room before the winter covid wave piled on top of the long wave our city’s been in since Spring. But it didn’t. A promising decline was stalled by holiday partying and tourism, and now has reversed entirely.

This year’s winter wave is particularly dangerous. While updated boosters are certainly a help, especially as a fairly high percentage of locals have already gotten them, this is also the first pandemic winter with zero public health protections. Last year many locals were still masking and many spaces were still requiring it. Now almost none are. Some are actively shaming or discouraging those who do.

While vaccines have curbed the worst impacts of the virus — and the bivalent booster is a real and important help — the pandemic is very much not over. It is still killing people in Asheville. This year’s long wave has officially killed 115 people. That is certainly a drastic undercount, and does not include those who die of long covid following the initial infection.

In other cases it’s disabling people (something that becomes more likely with each repeat infection). Case numbers no longer reflect the spread of covid because many tests are done at-home (which is why the Blade relies on test positivity and wastewater) and those falsely low tallies are used to bolster a mistaken sense of security.

Add to that the concept of “immunity debt,” that’s been making the rounds lately, which is the bizarre idea that masking and taking basic precautions is responsible for people getting sick. This is dangerous, eugenic nonsense and has been thoroughly debunked. The pandemic (and other viruses) are worse this year because precautions were abandoned and strains are even more contagious. That’s it.

That means that the virus, more contagious than ever, faces an ideal environment to spread fast and hurt a lot of people. Once again, Asheville is faced with the stark reminder that horrible realities do not go away simply because one wants them to.

Steps to take

In mid-November our communities saw, for the first time since May, test positivity rates below 10 percent. While covid remained a real danger that did indicate a very real decline in risks, from very high to substantial on the scale the Blade uses in our community alerts (you can see it on the test positivity chart above).

Well now covid’s running amok again, so it’s time to make your precautions stricter. While many are forced into risky situations through work or life, you and those around you taking as many of these as you can does offer some real protection.

GET THE OMICRON BOOSTER NOW — This remains really, really important with rates rising rapidly. The variants driving this winter covid wave are highly contagious and resistant to many existing anti-covid medications. While not bulletproof (it’s still essential to mask and avoid particularly risky situations), it does both reduce the possibility of infection and offer bolstered protections against its worst impacts. The updated booster (often called the bivalent booster) is still holding up pretty well.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Wear an N95 mask. Rapid test. — Cloth and surgical masks don’t do much against omicron variants. You need to wear an N95-level mask any time you come into close contact with others outside those you live with (or outside of small groups who are taking careful precautions). Preferably double-mask with another mask over an N95.

It’s worth debunking once again the myth that masks offer no individual protection. While it’s certainly really helpful if everyone in a place is wearing a mask, this particular misconception is left over from the earlier days of the pandemic when cloth masks were the main thing available. N95s offer substantial individual protection even if no one else in an area is wearing a mask. They are absolutely essential right now.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test at least three days after and isolate as much as possible until then.

Testing is essential to avoiding super-spreader events this holiday season. If you’re getting together in close quarters with people you don’t usually live with, testing beforehand is a must.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid crowded indoor events, dining and drinking — The fact this isn’t particularly popular doesn’t mean it’s not necessary. Thinking of going to a raucous public new year’s eve event? It’s a way better idea to keep the revelry to some close friends and test first. With the rapidly escalating risk levels it’s a good idea to avoid crowded restaurants and bars.

Of course, this is widely not being followed. Even in more ostensibly left-leaning communities people are facing a lot of pressure to come, unmasked, to risky events like this. That does not change the hard fact that taking this precaution is still really necessary with the current risk level.

Limit errands — Errands again hold some very real risks, so it’s worth keeping what you can to curbside pick-up or delivery until rates come back down. If you do need to go into a store, wear an N95 and make it quick.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. Those of us writing this struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other. There’s never a time when mutual aid doesn’t matter.

Stay vigilant and communicate — This is a particularly exhausting one during the holidays, when depression and isolation are already high, when even too many people in our communities are seemingly fine with partying maskless, indoors even if it gets those around them sick with a life-altering illness. As we’ve said before, we’ll be suffering the consequences of this selfishness and lack of care for decades to come.

Odds are anyone reading this has already faced pressure to stop wearing a mask and taking basic precautions. Don’t.

Instead talk to each other, be clear about what the risks are right now and what you and those close to you need to do to navigate this wave. If someone’s doing something dangerous, even unintentionally, say so. Many of us live with others with a variety of risk levels.

If you need help with something, ask. If you think someone you know might need help, ask. Check in on higher-risk folks you know (including if you’re higher-risk yourself) and see how their needs can be met.

Some honest communication now can keep entire households and communities from getting covid during the winter wave. Importantly it sets good understandings now, as things are going to be even more dangerous in the coming week.

If community means anything, “we keep us safe” has to be more than just pretty words.

COVID WAVE ALERT — December 18, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Asheville’s covid wave got a bit more ominous this week, as both virus in wastewater and test positivity ticked up. Rates are escalating across the state and country, so a winter wave is clearly starting to hit, even if it takes a moment before they drastically spike.

Test positivity jumped to 9.5 percent, up from 9.3 last week. Rates have basically been flatlined since November, as the holidays halted what was a promising decline in the long covid wave that’s gone on since April.

Wastewater also jumped for a second week. While not back to the horrific rates of summer, it’s worth noting that rates are already substantially above where they were this time last year, just before the devastating omicron winter wave.

This isn’t surprising; it’s basically what we’ve been anticipating for several weeks now. That does not, however, make it any less troubling. This year there’s not just one variant, but a whole ultra-contagious barrage. Last year there were still more widespread masking and health precautions. This year there are almost none. We have yet to see what a winter wave with functionally zero health protections looks like here, but we know it’s not going to be good.

Steps to take

What we said last week goes double now: prepare to take stricter precautions. While we’re not seeing a sharp spike in covid risks yet, the signs are very much heading in the wrong direction given how far we are into winter.

GET THE OMICRON BOOSTER NOW — This is really, really important. While it’s good news that over a quarter of locals have gotten the omicron booster (or bivalent booster, as it’s also known), that’s still way below where it needs to be. Somewhat lower covid risks have given us a bit of breathing room before a winter wave, but that window is very rapidly closing. So far the booster is holding up well against the newer variants while many anti-covid medications are not. But like with the other shots and boosters it takes about two weeks for it to reach full effectiveness. With these variants’ ability to spread rapidly it is really important to get it now.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Wear an N95 in public places — This is really, really important to do. Do not wait for the unlikely return of a mask mandate. While it’s promising that some municipalities are finally considering this, local governments here are unlikely to do that unless absolutely forced. If you’re running an errand or going to work or end up in any indoor public space with a significant number of people you should be wearing an N95. It offers substantial protection even if no one else is and helps keep you and others safe, especially with a winter wave almost certainly on the way.

Likewise, rapid tests remain a really good idea for close get-togethers and are a tool that shouldn’t be discarded even if rates keep getting lower.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid highly crowded, maskless spaces — If a place is packed with maskless strangers or tourists it’s probably best to come back later or steer clear. Covid risks are substantial and worsening.

On this note, it’s worth being very careful with any holiday gatherings. Plan now for everyone attending to take a rapid test and review covid precautions. Keep gathering sizes fairly small. If someone’s feeling even slightly sick they need to stay home.

Review covid boundaries and precautions with those close to you — It is essential to sit down and have an honest conversation with those close to you about what precautions need to be taken and what your particular risks are, especially as we’re heading back into a winter wave. This can save a lot of grief down the road, and it’s really important for everyone to have a clear idea about what they need to do to keep each other safe.

Support higher-risk people — Higher-risk people have faced atrocious treatment during this wave, losing access to spaces and services we used to have in the “back to normal” rush. On top of that the holidays are one of the worst mental health times of the year. So make a point of helping higher-risk people you know out with errands, food and finding safe ways to socialize and keep in touch.

Look, you’re not reading the Blade because we sugarcoat things. The reality is Asheville’s had a very bad year on the covid front and is now headed for a harsh winter. Every act we can do to fight back against that matters.

COVID WAVE ALERT — December 11, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Asheville’s covid rates wobbled again this week, showing risk levels staying pretty much the same. With winter on the way and covid starting to surge around the country, that’s not good.

Test positivity dropped a bit, to 9.3 percent, down from 9.7 last week.

Meanwhile virus in wastewater ticked up, but only slightly.

Rates staying about the same right now isn’t good news because winter is arriving. Every single year of the pandemic winter has brought, by far, the worst risks and most devastating impacts of any season. Indeed, we’re already seeing covid rates spike around the country and hospitals start to fill. There’s some indication from CDC data that Asheville/Buncombe is already seeing risks substantially increase.

So it’s not a matter of if covid rates will tick up here this winter, but when. For the past month we’ve seen some promising declines, so there was some hope that the long wave we’re currently in would finally fade before a winter spike hits.

But with Asheville stuck in a near-constant covid wave from mid-April until now it looks like the winter surge will arrive in a city where thousands have had multiple, immune system-damaging infections, where tourism is going more aggressive than ever and where precautions have been largely abandoned at all levels.

We don’t mean to make this sound overly bleak. There’s been some real, promising reductions in risks over the past two months. Winter waves are, however, a reality and it’s one we have to prepare for.

Steps to take

For now, risks are where they’ve been the past few weeks: still substantial, but not nearly as high as we experience for much of the summer and fall. That said it is a very good idea to prepare for things to get worse. Barring some miracle they’re going to, and probably pretty soon.

GET THE OMICRON BOOSTER NOW — Yes, we’re still emphasizing this, even more than last week. Somewhat lower covid risks have given us a bit of breathing room before a winter wave, but it looks like that’s shifting. So far the omicron booster (or bivalent booster, as it’s also known) is holding up well against the newer variants while many anti-covid medications are not. But like with the other shots and boosters it takes about two weeks for it to reach full effectiveness. With these variants’ ability to spread rapidly it is really important to get it now.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Wear an N95 in public places — This is really, really important to do. Do not wait for the unlikely return of a mask mandate. While it’s promising that some municipalities are finally considering this, local governments here are unlikely to do that unless forced. If you’re running an errand or going to work or end up in any crowded public space you should be wearing an N95. It offers substantial protection even if no one else is and helps keep you and others safe, especially with a winter wave almost certainly on the way.

Likewise, rapid tests remain a really good idea for close get-togethers and are a tool that shouldn’t be discarded even if rates keep getting lower.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid highly crowded, maskless spaces — If a place is packed with maskless strangers or tourists it’s probably best to come back later or steer clear. The rates we have still indicate substantial covid spread.

On this note, it’s worth being very careful with any holiday gatherings. Plan now for everyone attending to take a rapid test and review covid precautions. If someone’s feeling even slightly sick they need to stay home.

Review covid boundaries and precautions with those close to you — It is a very good idea to sit down and have an honest conversation with those close to you about what precautions need to be taken and what your particular risks are, especially as we’re heading back into a winter wave. This can save a lot of grief down the road, and it’s really important for everyone to have a clear idea about what they need to do to keep each other safe.

Support higher-risk people — Higher-risk people have faced atrocious treatment during this wave, losing access to spaces and services we used to have in the “back to normal” rush. Even as rates decline many spaces still remain unsafe. So make a point of helping higher-risk people you know out with errands, food and finding safe ways to socialize and keep in touch.

Yes, those of us taking this seriously are exhausted. Yes, this is all deeply frustrating. But it’s where we are. If you’re reading this, please know that you’re not alone, and that we can all make it through this.

COVID WAVE ALERT — December 5, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

The fairly steady decline in Asheville’s covid wave may be reversing. This week test positivity shot up to 9.7 percent, up from 8.9 last week.

Given that we’re closing in on the heart of winter — when covid risks usually spike dramatically — that’s a troubling sign. We’re not quite in the winter wave (on top of the long one that’s never really ended) yet, but one way or another it’s closing fast.

The other main covid indicator had slightly better news, as virus in wastewater, after wobbling last week, dropped this time. That could be a positive sign but we won’t know that for a week or two.

As we discussed last week, each time this sort of shift happens on the way to winter is just a bit more ominous. Hospitals are already seeing strain due not just to covid but other viruses, including a particularly harsh flu season. In other parts of the country even some local governments are considering bringing back mask mandates.

But in Asheville it continues to be “normal at all costs” and those costs are the health, or even lives, of the rest of us. While it never should have left, now would be an extraordinarily good time to bring back a mask mandate, but so far that’s unlikely hear. You and everyone you know should wear one regardless.

The BA.5 variant that’s caused much of Asheville’s long wave since summer is finally giving way to a whole pack of horrible viral mutations, led by BQ 1.1 (“Cerberus”) which ignores most existing covid medications, though the omicron booster currently holds up pretty well.

In previous winter wave usually one major variant has caused much of the devastation. We honestly do not know what a whole barrage of them will do.

Steps to take

It honestly took awhile to decide where to land on what precautions to take this week. The recent spike in positivity is genuinely worrying, but the decline in virus in wastewater is a more promising sign.

For now we are keeping the precautions where they are. But if, next week, positivity goes solidly above 10 percent a return to stricter measures will be necessary. In the meantime it’s worth making sure to not relax things too much: especially when it comes to wearing an N95 and getting the omicron booster.

GET THE OMICRON BOOSTER NOW — Yes, we’re still emphasizing this, even more than last week. Somewhat lower covid risks have given us a bit of breathing room before a winter wave, but it looks like that’s shifting. So far the omicron booster (or bivalent booster, as it’s also known) is holding up well against the newer variants while many anti-covid medications are not. But like with the other shots and boosters it takes about two weeks for it to reach full effectiveness. With these variants’ ability to spread rapidly it is really important to get it now.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Wear an N95 in pubic places — This is really, really important to do. Do not wait for the unlikely return of a mask mandate. If you’re running an errand or going to work or end up in any crowded public space you should be wearing an N95. It offers substantial protection even if no one else is and helps keep you and others safe, especially with a winter wave almost certainly on the way.

Likewise, rapid tests remain a really good idea for close get-togethers and are a tool that shouldn’t be discarded even if rates keep getting lower.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid highly crowded, maskless spaces — While they still carry very real risks, indoor spaces aren’t as dangerous as they were a few weeks ago. That said, if a place is packed with maskless strangers or tourists it’s probably best to come back later or steer clear. The rates we have still indicate substantial covid spread.

On this note, it’s worth being very careful with any holiday gatherings. Plan now for everyone attending to take a rapid test, review covid precautions, etc.

Review covid boundaries and precautions with those close to you — Transitional times like this can be especially risky during the pandemic. It is a very good idea to sit down and have an honest conversation with those close to you about what precautions need to be taken and what your particular risks are, especially if we’re heading back into a winter wave. This can save a lot of grief down the road, and it’s really important for everyone to have a clear idea about what they need to do to keep each other safe.

Support higher-risk people — Higher-risk people have faced atrocious treatment during this wave, losing access to spaces and services we used to have in the “back to normal” rush. Even as rates decline many spaces still remain unsafe. So make a point of helping higher-risk people you know out with errands, food and finding safe ways to socialize and keep in touch.

Honestly, in some ways this feels like the hardest start to a covid winter yet, as the long wave that started in April never really ended. Many of us are beyond exhausted. Still, what we do matters, it saves lives and helps keep each other safe. So keep doing it, as long as it’s necessary.

COVID WAVE ALERT — November 27, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

The promising decline in Asheville’s long covid wave once again stalled this week. After some solid declines, positivity only went down to 8.9 percent from 9 percent last week.

Meanwhile virus in wastewater continued to wobble, inching up a bit but not drastically so.

A few months ago this could’ve just been written off as the variations that happen with monitoring covid week-by-week, and one could probably expect the decline to continue. Indeed, despite seeing some pauses due to labor day tourism, Halloween super-spreaders, etc, we’ve seen fairly solid declines in covid risks since the high point of this wave in early August.

But there’s a major reason for a bit more caution now: winter is coming. Every winter since the start of the pandemic has brought us some of our worst covid waves. Indeed, as we’ve noted for the past month we’re seeing troubling new variants like BQ 1 (“Typhon”) and BQ 1.1 (“Cerberus”) hit the state, which almost certainly means they’re in Asheville. Add the utter lack of public health protections and the holidays and there’s a recipe for a very ugly winter wave hitting on top of the long wave that’s hit Asheville since April.

Even as local covid risks have seen real declines, our alerts have made sure to note the need to temper those with caution given the approach of winter. This week we should probably add an exclamation point to that.

Steps to take

Last week we saw rates solidly below 10 percent for the first time since mid-May, and noted that some of the stricter precautions necessary during the past two months could be relaxed. We’re not seeing substantial enough signs of the covid wave escalating to a point where those would need to return, but it’s a really good idea to prepare for that possibility. We’re almost certainly going to see rates rise again as winter sinks its teeth in.

GET THE OMICRON BOOSTER NOW — Yes, we’re still emphasizing this. Declining rates have given us a bit of breathing room before a winter wave, but that can change very quickly given the lack of widespread public health protections in Asheville. So far it looks like the omicron booster (or bivalent booster, as it’s also known) is holding up well against the newer variants while many anti-covid medications are not. But like with the other shots and boosters it takes about two weeks for it to reach full effectiveness. With these variants’ ability to spread rapidly it is really important to get it now.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Wear an N95 in pubic places — This likewise remains a good precaution to take regardless of covid level, especially given winter shopping. If you’re running an errand or going to work or end up in any crowded public space you should be wearing an N95. It offers substantial protection even if no one else is and helps keep you and others safe, especially with a winter wave almost certainly on the way.

Likewise, rapid tests remain a really good idea for close get-togethers and are a tool that shouldn’t be discarded even if rates keep getting lower.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid highly crowded, maskless spaces — While they still carry very real risks, indoor spaces aren’t as dangerous as they were a few weeks ago. That said, if a place is packed with maskless strangers or tourists it’s probably best to come back later or steer clear. The rates we have still indicate substantial covid spread.

On this note, it’s worth being very careful with any holiday gatherings. Plan now for everyone attending to take a rapid test, review covid precautions, etc.

Review covid boundaries and precautions with those close to you — Transitional times like this can be especially risky during the pandemic. It is a very good idea to sit down and have an honest conversation with those close to you about what precautions need to be taken and what your particular risks are. This can save a lot of grief down the road, and it’s really important for everyone to have a clear idea about what they need to do to keep each other safe.

Support higher-risk people — Higher-risk people have faced atrocious treatment during this wave, losing access to spaces and services we used to have in the “back to normal” rush. Even as rates decline many spaces still remain unsafe. So make a point of helping higher-risk people you know out with errands, food and finding safe ways to socialize and keep in touch.

Our communities have faced real, often devastating, damage during this extended wave. If we’re going to avoid a very bleak winter then we have to apply “we keep us safe” to covid and demand our communities do the same.

COVID WAVE ALERT — November 20, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Our communities are definitely in a good news/bad news situation this week on the covid front, though for the moment the good outweighs the bad.

After an alarming spike over the past few weeks, virus in wastewater declined. This seems to confirm the better of the two scenarios we delved into last week: that the rise was due to Halloween super-spreader events rather than the more damaging early arrival of a winter wave on top of the one we already have.

Test positivity also declined, dropping to 9 percent (down from 9.5 last week), solidly below 10 percent for the first time since mid-May. That indicates that while the wave’s not over yet, we are seeing a very real decline in community risk levels.

If we keep seeing this kind of decline we could see this incredibly long covid wave finally end in a few weeks.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that there are still some pretty ominous signs of a winter wave on the horizon. Newer variants — especially BQ 1 (“Typhon”) and BQ 1.1 (“Cerberus”) — that can quickly reinfect those who’ve had omicron before, and that ignore many existing anti-coviid drugs, are surging across the state. While this hasn’t yet caused a resurgence in the covid wave here, it’s worth keeping a cautious eye on. Things could change very rapidly over the next few weeks.

That said the good news is still pretty good and, for the moment, risks are truly down here in Asheville.

Steps to take

This is the first time Asheville’s seen positivity rates below 10 percent since May. While rates between 5 and 10 percent still indicate a substantial amount of community spread, we simply aren’t seeing the virus running utterly amok like it did this Spring (and Summer, and much of the Fall). That means that some of the stricter precautions necessary the past month and a half can be relaxed. As always though, that depends on the risks levels of the reader and those around them.

We’ll start with some advice that remains a really good idea regardless of covid level.

GET THE OMICRON BOOSTER NOW — Yes, we’re still emphasizing this. Declining rates gives us a bit of breathing room before a winter wave, but that could change very quickly given the lack of widespread public health protections in Asheville. So far it looks like the omicron booster (or bivalent booster, as it’s also known) is holding up well against the newer variants while many anti-covid medications are not. But like with the other shots and boosters it takes about two weeks for it to reach full effectiveness. With these variants’ ability to spread rapidly it is really important to get it now.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Wear an N95 in pubic places — This likewise remains a good precaution to take regardless of covid level. If you’re running an errand or going to work or end up in any crowded public space you should be wearing an N95. It offers substantial protection even if no one else is and helps keep you and others safe, especially with a winter wave almost certainly on the way.

Likewise, rapid tests remain a really good idea for close get-togethers and are a tool that shouldn’t be discarded even if rates keep getting lower.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid highly crowded, maskless spaces — While they still carry very real risks, indoor spaces aren’t as dangerous as they were a few weeks ago. That said, if a place is packed with maskless strangers or tourists it’s probably best to come back later or steer clear. The rates we have still indicate substantial covid spread.

Review covid boundaries and precautions with those close to you — Transitional times like this can be especially risky during the pandemic. It is a very good idea to sit down and have an honest conversation with those close to you about what precautions need to be taken and what your particular risks are. This can save a lot of grief down the road, and it’s really important for everyone to have a clear idea about what they need to do to keep each other safe.

Support higher-risk people — Higher-risk people have faced atrocious treatment during this wave, losing access to spaces and services we used to have in the “back to normal” rush. Even as rates decline many spaces remain unsafe for us. So make a point of helping higher-risk people you know out with errands, food and finding safe ways to socialize and keep in touch.

In-between spaces like this are always hard to navigate, especially with the potential of things dramatically turning for the worse in coming weeks and months. Clear boundaries, honest communication and real community care now still saves lives.

COVID WAVE ALERT — November 13, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Our city saw some incredibly mixed signals — including some really troubling ones — on the covid front this week. Virus in wastewater spiked, by a lot, and this time it pretty clearly wasn’t an outlier. While the rates aren’t the worst of this wave, they’re the worst Asheville’s seen in several months.

Yet at the same time test positivity dropped, by a lot, plummeting to 9.5 percent, down from 11.1 percent last week.

Normally this would be cause for celebration, as it’s the first time positivity’s dropped below the 10 percent threshold since mid-May.

But combined with the disturbingly high virus in wastewater readings, there’s a bit more cause for concern. As readers of these alerts will know, this kind of gap is really unusual. Generally, with some gaps and exceptions, when covid risks are getting worse wastewater and positivity both spike. When they’re decreasing they both go down.

Notably wastewater is one of the only measures that gives us some idea of covid spread among tourists, who are a major driver of it. So we could be seeing a spike resulting from their crap (literally, in this case) from Halloween and the very end of leaf season.

That’s the more optimistic scenario. The other is that spikes in wastewater tend to precede spikes in positivity. So we could be seeing a warning that colder temperatures and the arrival of the very dangerous new omicron variants we discussed last week are sending Asheville into the winter wave early.

If so it will be a particularly bleak outcome, and raises the specter of the long wave getting even longer, as zero precautions and waves of plague-ridden tourists keep bolstering the virus every time it starts to wane.

But we don’t yet have quite enough information to know yet whether this is a blip or something worse. We’ll know more next week. Until then it’s worth staying pretty cautious.

Steps to take

Normally positivity rates dropping below the 10 percent threshold would be a good indication things are a bit safer and some precautions can be relaxed. But the troubling wastewater readings means we here at the Blade think that’s a bit premature. So, for the moment it’s a really good idea to keep up the precautions that have been necessary since late September.

GET THE OMICRON BOOSTER NOW — While this has been a necessary step for some time it’s more important than ever now. So far it looks like the omicron booster (or bivalent booster, as it’s sometimes known) is holding up against the newest variants pretty well, while many anti-covid medications are not. But like with the other shots and boosters it takes about two weeks for it to reach full effectiveness. With these variants’ ability to spread rapidly it is really important to get it now.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Wear an N95 mask. Rapid test. — Cloth and surgical masks don’t do much against omicron variants. You need to wear an N95-level mask any time you come into close contact with others outside those you live with (or outside of small groups who are taking careful precautions). Preferably double-mask with another mask over an N95.

It’s worth debunking once again the myth that masks offer no individual protection. While it’s certainly really helpful if everyone in a place is wearing a mask, this particular misconception is left over from the earlier days of the pandemic when cloth masks were the main thing available. N95s offer substantial individual protection even if no one else in an area is wearing a mask. This winter they’re a must.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test at least three days after and isolate as much as possible until then.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid crowded indoor events, dining and drinking — While the dangers aren’t quite as bad as they were this summer events like crowded indoor dance parties, dining and drinking still remain really risky given the relatively high level of community spread. Generally if you’re going to do something social at this point keep it outdoors. That’s getting trickier with colder weather but it remains very necessary. If you end up indoors limit the time you stay and remain masked.

Of course, this is widely not being followed. Even in more ostensibly left-leaning communities people are facing a lot of pressure to come, unmasked, to risky events like this. That does not change the hard fact that taking this precaution is still really necessary with the current risk level.

Limit errands — Errands still hold some very real risks, so it’s worth keeping what you can to curbside pick-up or delivery until rates go down a little more. That said, running into a store no longer holds the much higher risks it did when positivity rates were above 15 percent, so when you need to do so wear an N95 and make it quick.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. Those of us writing this struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other. There’s never a time when mutual aid doesn’t matter.

Stay vigilant and communicate — This is a particularly exhausting one right now, when even too many people in our communities are seemingly fine with partying maskless, indoors even if it gets those around them sick with a life-altering illness. As we’ve said before, we’ll be suffering the consequences of this selfishness and lack of care for decades to come.

Don’t do that. Instead talk to each other, be clear about what the risks are right now and what you and those close to you need to do to navigate this wave. If someone’s doing something dangerous, even unintentionally, say so. Many of us live with others with a variety of risk levels. Some honest communication now can keep entire households and communities from getting covid. Importantly it can set good habits now, as things are likely to be even more dangerous in the coming weeks and months.

Even if the decline in covid risks is real, there’s almost certainly another wave coming in a month or two. Preparing now is essential to making it through a harsh season. Winter’s here and the only way to get through it is together.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — November 6, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Asheville has some alarming news this week on the covid front, as the incredibly dangerous BQ 1 (dubbed “Typhon” by some public health folks) and BQ 1.1 (“Cerberus”) hit this state. When new omicron variants arrive in North Carolina they almost always hit tourism hubs like Asheville first. If it’s in N.C., it’s likely here.

While they’re still a relatively small percentage of cases; they’re gaining ground exponentially, which is always a bad sign.

These variants, in addition to being incredibly contagious, also largely ignore many existing covid medications like Evusheld and remaining immunity from a previous omicron infection. As we’ll get to in our “steps to take” section for this week, however, so far the omicron/bivalent booster seems to hold up against them pretty well. But so far only 14 percent of the local population has that shot.

Indeed virus in wastewater ticked up this week after over a month of slow decline. It will be a week or two before we know if this is a surge due to all the super-spreader crap on Halloween or if we’re looking at something more serious driven by the new variants.

Test positivity has, at least for the moment, less bleak numbers, as it dropped to 11.1 percent (down from 11.9 last week), as the leaf season surge started to fade a bit.

Again, we’ll know more next week if rates continue to decline or start to rise. Wastewater usually leads positivity rates by a week or two.

We have to emphasize, once more, how unusually terrible this prolonged covid deluge has been in Asheville. Many other cities — including plenty of regional and tourism hubs — saw their waves earlier this year solidly end. Meanwhile test positivity here has been above 10 percent since May.

The combination of rampant tourism, zero public health precautions and constant influxes of well-off white gentry (the demographic least likely to mask) leave our town facing a bleak winter.

Steps to take

Given these new variants hitting the region while it’s getting colder it’s definitely not the time to relax precautions. Everything we’ve said the past few weeks applies even moreso now. Even though rates aren’t as catastrophically high as they were over the summer they’re still staying in pretty dangerous territory. There’s no world in which the arrival of two particularly dangerous variants doesn’t change that for the worse.

GET THE OMICRON BOOSTER NOW — While this has been a necessary step for some time it’s really, really important right now. So far it looks like the omicron booster (or bivalent booster, as it’s sometimes known) is holding up against the Typhon and Cerberus variants pretty well. But like with the other shots and boosters it takes about two weeks for it to reach full effectiveness. With these variants’ ability to spread rapidly it is really important to get it now.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, Ingle’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Wear an N95 mask. Rapid test. — Cloth and surgical masks don’t do much against omicron variants. You need to wear an N95-level mask any time you come into close contact with others outside those you live with (or outside of small groups who are taking careful precautions). Preferably double-mask with another mask over an N95.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test at least three days after and isolate as much as possible until then.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid crowded indoor events, dining and drinking — While the dangers aren’t quite as bad as they were this summer events like crowded indoor dance parties, dining and drinking still remain really risky given the relatively considerable level of community spread. Generally if you’re going to do something social at this point keep it outdoors. That’s getting trickier with colder weather but it remains very necessary. If you end up indoors limit the time you stay and remain masked.

Of course, this is widely not being followed. Halloween alone played host to a bevy of superspreader events and we’ll doubtless see some pretty ugly consequences in the following weeks and months. That does not change the hard fact that taking this precaution is still really necessary with the current risk level.

Limit errands — Errands still hold some very real risks, so it’s worth keeping what you can to curbside pick-up or delivery until rates go down a little more. That said, running into a store no longer holds the much higher risks it did when positivity rates were above 15 percent, so when you need to do so wear an N95 and make it quick.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. Those of us writing this struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other. There’s never a time when mutual aid doesn’t matter.

Stay vigilant and communicate — This is a particularly exhausting one right now, when even too many people in our communities are seemingly fine with partying maskless, indoors even if it gets those around them sick with a life-altering illness. As we’ve said before, we’ll be suffering the consequences of this selfishness and lack of care for decades to come.

Don’t do that. Instead talk to each other, be clear about what the risks are right now and what you and those close to you need to do to navigate this wave. If someone’s doing something dangerous, even unintentionally, say so. Many of us live with others with a variety of risk levels. Some honest communication now can keep entire households and communities from getting covid. Importantly it can set good habits now, as things are likely to be even more dangerous in the coming weeks and months.

We’re going to need every bit of that we can muster. Governments obviously aren’t keeping us safe. When we act together, our communities can.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — October 30, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Finally this week we again received updated local covid data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, which decline to do so last week in an act of inexcusable negligence. They show that – almost certainly due to leaf season tourism — the promising decline in Asheville’s covid wave has again stalled.

Test positivity, which had dropped all the way to 10.9 percent two weeks ago, shot up last week t0 12.6 percent before dropping back down to 11.9 percent. This resembles, in some ways, the bump in covid rates we saw around Labor Day that halted a previous decline.

That’s not good, though it’s not apocalyptic either. Virus in wastewater rates have remained about the same and while that level’s far lower than we saw during much of this wave, it’s still at a level that indicates some real dangers.

It should be noted that a covid wave this prolonged — we’ve been in one since late April and stayed above 10 percent positivity rate since mid-May — is not typical, even during this “do nothing” phase of covid. The positivity rates in Atlanta, Durham and Wilmington are all well below 10 percent right now, as is North Carolina’s statewide rate. Asheville’s covid situation, like our cast of living, is unusually bad.

With a bleak winter fast approaching this raises the grim possibility of our city entering a sort of perma-wave where repeatedly flooding the city with tourists means that covid rates stay devastatingly high for a very, very long time.

Part of the explanation is demographics. A study conducted by Kaiser Health this summer found that mask wearing is far more common among marginalized groups. For example, 81 percent of Black people surveyed believed it was an important health practice to stay masked in public all or most of the time.

This backs up what multiple studies and polls have found throughout the pandemic: well-off white gentry are the least likely to take health precautions and the most likely to infect others through recklessness and apathy.

Well, guess who the overwhelming majority of Asheville’s tourists are?

This means we don’t just have to deal with our wave, we have to deal with some of the worst people on the planet bringing their covid waves along for the ride. Sadly it looks like it will take a lot of death and destruction before that changes.

Steps to take

Two weeks ago it looked like covid rates were decreasing quickly enough that we might soon be able to relax a few more precautions. Sadly that changed. While that may still happen, right now test positivity is pretty firmly above 10 percent. While this isn’t the incredibly dangerous levels of risk we faced when rates were above 15 percent this summer, it’s still nothing to mess around with. Take precautions accordingly.

Get the omicron booster — This one remains true at any covid rate, especially as even if this wave finally ends we’ll likely see a winter one as new variants hit. The omicron booster offers increased, updated protection and is probably one of the factors behind the recent declines we’re seeing.

It is also incredibly important right now. The BQ.1 variant that’s likely to hit our city sometime this winter ignores protection from previous omicron infection and current covid antibody meds like Evusheld. It is, of course, also highly infectious. However, the omicron booster stands up pretty well against it. If you get it now your immune system will have the necessary weeks to more fully protect you by the time the winter wave hits.

Right now only eleven percent of the Asheville/Buncombe population has had that booster. While that’s a lot better than the abysmal national average, it’s still way below where it needs to be to avoid a very bleak winter.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Wear an N95 mask. Rapid test. — Cloth masks simply do not cut it, nor do surgical masks. You need to wear an N95-level mask any time you come into contact with others outside those you live with (or outside of small groups who are taking careful precautions). Preferably double-mask with another mask over an N95.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test at least three days after and isolate as much as possible until then.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid crowded indoor events, dining and drinking — While the declining spread of the virus means that staying home isn’t quite as necessary as before, events like crowded indoor dance parties, dining and drinking still remain really risky given the relatively considerable level of community spread. Generally if you’re going to do something social at this point, keep it outdoors. That’s getting trickier with colder weather but it remains very necessary. If you end up indoors, limit the time you stay and remain masked.

Of course, this is widely not being followed. Halloween alone has played host to a bevy of superspreader events and we’ll doubtless see some pretty ugly consequences in the following weeks and months. That does not change the hard fact that taking this precaution is still really necessary with the current risk level.

Limit errands — Errands still hold some very real risks, so it’s worth keeping what you can to curbside pick-up or delivery until rates go down a little more. That said, running into a store no longer holds the much higher risks it did when positivity rates were above 15 percent, so when you need to do so wear an N95 and make it quick.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. Those of us writing this struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other. There’s never a time when mutual aid doesn’t matter.

Stay vigilant and communicate — This is a particularly exhausting one right now, when even too many people in our communities are seemingly fine with partying maskless, indoors even if it gets those around them sick with a life-altering illness. As we’ve said before, we’ll be suffering the consequences of this selfishness and lack of care for decades to come.

So don’t do that. Instead talk to each other, be clear about what the risks are right now and what you and those close to you need to do to navigate this wave. If someone’s doing something dangerous, even unintentionally, say so. Many of us live with others with a variety of risk levels. Some honest communication now can keep entire households and communities from getting covid.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Every day, we can choose to act differently, and it matters.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — October 22, 2022

Regrettably, the Blade is unable to provide our readers with a full, updated covid wave alert this week. This is not due to any problem on our end, but because the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services failed to do its weekly update of the statewide dashboard that includes the local numbers for covid risk in the Asheville area, due to “a technical issue.”

Instead of fixing this within a day or two, NCDHHS opted to just not release any new information this week at all, leaving us without any updated covid numbers at all until the middle of next week.

This act of inexcusable incompetence means that we, along with people throughout our area, do not have current information on the risk levels in our area. That makes it far harder, especially for higher-risk folks, to determine how to go about their lives without being struck by a plague.

The New York Times covid dashboard has continued to function, however, and currently lists Buncombe County with a 13 percent test positivity rate. That would be an increase over last week, and possibly a sign that the decline in the covid wave is stalled due to the influx of leaf season tourists.

But without other key measures such as virus in wastewater or a look at which variants are circulating, it’s difficult to fully tell.

We regret this, and hope to be able to fully update the public next week, providing NCDHHS gets their act together. In the meantime, please keep up the precautions from last week’s alert.

— The Asheville Blade co-op

COVID WAVE ALERT — October 16, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week saw solid declines in Asheville’s covid rates, continuing the trend of the past few weeks. This is good news, though as it’s usually worth noting we’re not out of the wave yet. A few more weeks like the past two, though, and we might be.

The big news this week is on the test positivity rate, which dropped to 10.9 percent (down from 12). This is the closest it’s been to the 10 percent line for the first time since mid-May.

If it drops below 10 percent that will mean that risks have substantially reduced once again, and we’re probably on the way out of this current wave. We’ll see next week.

Virus in wastewater, meanwhile, stayed about the same. But it did so at a relatively low rate. Not “we’re out of the wave” low, but still no real sign of a resurgence.

While these aren’t the massive declines of last week, they do at least indicate that Asheville’s long covid wave — and the risks that come with it — is finally diminishing. Let’s hope it continues, and that this wave at least lifts before the winter one hits.

Steps to take

Given that covid risks have consistently dropped the past few weeks and are very close to going below the 10 percent line indicating high levels of community spread, we thought about relaxing a few more precautions this week. But after some consideration that’s probably a little early. If test positivity goes below 10 percent next week that will likely change but — as with so much else in this pandemic — we’re not there yet. For the time being it’s still worth keeping up some considerable precautions.

Get the omicron booster — This one remains true at any covid rate, especially as even if this wave finally ends we’ll likely see a winter one as new variants hit. The omicron booster offers increased, updated protection and is probably one of the factors behind the recent declines we’re seeing.

It is also incredibly important right now. The BQ.1 variant that’s likely to hit our city sometime this winter ignores protection from previous omicron infection and current covid antibody meds like Evusheld. It is, of course, also highly infectious. However, the omicron booster stands up pretty well against it. If you get it now your immune system will have the necessary weeks to more fully protect you by the time the winter wave hits.

Right now only nine percent of the Asheville/Buncombe population has had that booster. While that’s a lot better than the abysmal four percent national average, it’s still way below where it needs to be to avoid a very bleak winter.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Wear an N95 mask. Rapid test. — Cloth masks simply do not cut it, nor do surgical masks. You need to wear an N95-level mask any time you come into contact with others outside those you live with (or outside of small groups who are taking careful precautions). Preferably double-mask with another mask over an N95.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test at least three days after and isolate as much as possible until then.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid crowded indoor events, dining and drinking — While the declining spread of the virus means that staying home isn’t quite as necessary as before, events like crowded indoor dance parties, dining and drinking still remain really risky given the relatively considerable level of community spread. Generally if you’re going to do something social at this point, keep it outdoors. That’s getting trickier with colder weather but it remains very necessary. If you end up indoors, limit the time you stay and remain masked.

Limit errands — Errands still hold some very real risks, so it’s worth keeping what you can to curbside pick-up or delivery until rates go down a little more. That said, running into a store no longer holds the much higher risks it did when positivity rates were above 15 percent, so when you need to do so wear an N95 and make it quick.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. Those of us writing this struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other. There’s never a time when mutual aid doesn’t matter.

Stay vigilant and communicate — Ironically now; when this wave is waning, can actually be one of the most difficult pandemic times. Enduring pandemic waves and keeping yourself and others safe can often be frustrating and exhausting. It’s tempting, when things are so close to being a lot safer, to throw caution to the wind.

Don’t. Talk to each other, be clear about what the risks are right now and what you and those close to you need to do to navigate the rest of this wave. Many of us live with others with a variety of risk levels. Some honest communication now can keep entire households and communities from getting covid during this transitional time.

Climbing a massive mountain is honestly what this excruciating, seemingly endless covid wave feels like, without the natural beauty. Plenty of people get injured or die descending mountains. The latter days of a covid wave are, in some ways, like that. It can be easy to get careless because the worst seems past. So stick to precautions and be there for those around you. It matters now too.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — October 8, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week saw, finally, some unabashedly good news on the covid wave front, with levels of community spread — and the risks that go with them — declining rapidly, enough that some of the stricter precautions can be relaxed.

That said, while the wave is rapidly diminishing it’s not over yet.

Virus in wastewater dropped back down again this week after spiking some just after Labor Day.

Test positivity was even more promising, plummeting down to 12 percent from 15.5 percent last week. This is one of the largest weekly drops seen in the entire pandemic.

That also means that, for the first time since June, the test positivity rate is solidly below 15 percent. That’s important because 15 percent is a line that, roughly but generally reliably, indicates a catastrophic level of community spread and all the dangers that come with that.

While still not out of the wave (rates above 10 percent still indicate some very real risks), it does mean that covid poses less of a danger in our communities than it has for the past few excruciating months.

What’s driving this? Well waves do, by their nature, eventually go down as strains exhaust the people they can easily infect. Obviously this happens more quickly with precautions, which remain sadly non-existent on a wide scale. In addition to tourism and the lack of protections a major factor that’s made this wave so long is that it’s actually a double wave, with one batch of omicron variants (especially BA2.1.2) hitting around late Spring and another (mostly BA.5) striking hard around mid-summer just when the previous wave had started to wane.

We’re also most of a month out from the first doses of the omicron booster getting widely distributed. Hopefully that’s helping curb the virus’ spread too.

Steps to take

Given that the risks have substantially declined, some of the stricter precautions (particularly staying home whenever possible) are no longer as necessary as they were when rates were above 15 percent. As we’ve often said, the Blade doesn’t sugarcoat bad pandemic news, but we don’t hide genuinely good news either. Every indication is that risks aren’t nearly as high as they were and it’s relatively safe to adjust behaviors accordingly.

That said, the wave is absolutely not over yet. While far better than the levels over 15 percent we’ve been stuck at, test positivity above 10 percent is still not good even if it is declining.

So don’t make the mistake of viewing covid protections as all or nothing. While some of the stricter precautions aren’t as necessary, there’s still steps we all need to do to keep ourselves and our communities safe.

Get the omicron booster — This one remains true at any covid rate, especially as even if this wave finally ends we’ll likely see a winter one as new variants hit. The omicron booster offers increased, updated protection and is probably one of the factors behind the recent declines we’re seeing.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the omicron booster. Contact them for more details.

Wear an N95 mask. Rapid test. — Cloth masks simply do not cut it, nor do surgical masks. You need to wear an N95-level mask any time you come into contact with others outside those you live with or small groups who are taking careful precautions. Preferably double-mask with a cloth mask over an N95.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test three days after and isolate as much as possible until then.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as KN95 and N95 masks to those in need.

Avoid crowded indoor events, dining and drinking — While the declining spread of the virus means that staying home isn’t quite as necessary as before, events like crowded indoor dance parties, dining and drinking still remain really risky given the relatively considerable level of community spread. Generally if you’re going to do something social at this point, keep it outdoors. If you end up indoors, limit the time you stay and remain masked.

Limit errands — Errands still hold some very real risks, so it’s worth keeping what you can to curbside pick-up or delivery until rates go down a little more. That said, running into a store no longer holds the much higher risks it did when positivity rates were above 15 percent, so when you need to do so wear an N95 and make it quick.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. Those of us writing this struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other. There’s never a time when mutual aid doesn’t matter.

Stay vigilant and communicate — Ironically now; when this wave is waning, can actually be one of the most difficult times in this part of the pandemic. Enduring pandemic waves and keeping yourself and others safe can often be frustrating and exhausting. It’s tempting, when things are so close to being a lot safer, to throw caution to the wind.

Don’t. Talk to each other, be clear about what the risks are right now and what you and those close to you need to do to navigate the rest of this wave. Many of us live with others with a variety of risk levels. Some honest communication now can keep entire households and communities from getting covid during this transitional time.

While the local covid news right now is good, as we write this new variants (with nicknames like “Cerberus” and “Typhoon” because we apparently live in a bad sci-fi novel) are on the way, far more resistant to existing medications like Evusheld and fully capable of infecting those who’ve recovered from previous bouts with omicron.

Even if this current wave finally ends before they reach us, it almost certainly won’t be the last.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — September 30, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week saw the resulting covid spread from Labor Day (and, to some extent, the re-opening of schools) continue to snarl up what had been a promising decline in Asheville’s incredibly long covid wave.

Virus in wastewater stayed around the same level as it had been last week, an increase from the weeks of decline but not back to dangerous levels.

Test positivity showed a small decline — to 15.5 percent from last week’s 15.7 percent — but still remain at roughly the same level for a third week. While a major decline from its higher rates of the wave, a rate above 15 percent still indicates a dangerously high level of community spread.

On the one hand surges in covid infections are usual after holidays. Triply so when health protections have been basically abandoned on a city and society-wide level. If the post-Labor Day surge results in rates stalling rather than spiking back up, that could be a relatively solid indicator of other factors (like more boosters and a ton of people already getting omicron) reducing community spread.

On the other rates above 15 percent remain really dangerous. This is still a truly bad place to be stuck in.

And at this point we’ve been here for months. The last time we saw rates consistently below 15 percent was late May. Such levels of catastrophic covid spread usually only lasted a few weeks in previous waves, but thanks to the complete lack of public health protections and an “ignore reality and pretend covid’s over” attitude they’ve ground on for much of the year, sickening countless people in our communities.

Steps to take

It’s important to start off the necessary precautions by tackling the feeling of hopelessness and fatigue too many

But it’s not true. Overwhelmingly the common factor in those who haven’t gotten covid yet — or who have only gotten infected once — is consistently taking precautions as much as they can and working with a supportive community to do so.

None of this is to underrate when covid is inflicted on people through dangerous workplace or life conditions beyond their control. As we’ve said many times here before there should, by itself, be no judgement in getting a highly contagious virus. Indeed support and care should be the norm.

It is a reminder not to give up hope, not to think our efforts are meaningless, to resist the lemming-like urge to stop taking basic precautions and not to succumb to “everyone’s going to get covid” eugenics nonsense. The most basic precautions remain ones anyone can take to at least sharply limit you and your community’s risk levels. Plenty of people still do, and save lives and health in the process.

“It’s a systemic issue that requires a communal response” does not mean “it’s no one’s fault and no individual is responsible for their actions.” Being a reckless asshole who endangers everyone around you is absolutely worth judgement and condemnation.

On that note, community spread is still bad enough that strict precautions remain necessary.

Get the omicron booster — The availability of the omicron booster is a real shift and offers real protections, though we’ll have a clearer idea of its fully effectiveness as it’s studied further in the coming weeks and months. Given the declining effectiveness of the original round of vaccines and boosters, it’s important to get it now.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the booster. Contact them for more details.

This is an incredibly important step because boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid, they help prevent you from spreading it to your friends and neighbors as well. While the previous vaccines never totally lost their effectiveness against omicron, those variants’ ability to evade some of the vaccine’s protection has been a major part of them running rampant and sickening thousands. The omicron-specific booster decreases that danger.

Stay home as much as possible — A percent positivity above 15 percent indicates that there’s still some very real dangers out there. So tell your friends you’ll save indoor get-togethers for a bit, especially as it will likely be significantly less risky then as viral spread continues to decrease. Meet up in a park, preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread outside especially with prolonged, close maskless contact.

Avoid indoor bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and as rates still remain fairly high even two hours on a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for a bit, do so. We’re still at the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, with just a cloth or surgical mask, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in someone that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close indoor contact for a little while longer. If they get sour about it direct them to city hall and the tourism industry. Along with sacrificing the lives and health of many locals during this pandemic, they’ve made it harder for the rest of us to safely connect.

Wear an N95 and rapid test — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, don’t do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re indoors around someone who’s not part of your household or pod. Outdoors isn’t a bad idea too if you’ll be in close proximity for a long time.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations without good reason, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates still high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives. Don’t emerge from isolation until you test negative.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as N95 and KN95 masks to those in need.

Be strict about covid boundaries — It’s better to have some hard conversations than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. That’s especially the case when an expected decline doesn’t materialize. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some real danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too. Remember: the danger has been reduced over the past month-plus but it has not gone away.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly hazardous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

Support each other — Mutual aid, in many forms, remains very necessary. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day again. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

Vent over phone or video— or take a walk outdoors — when you’ve had it with how wrenching and frustrating this all is. A sudden spike when we were expecting a decline is genuinely demoralizing news and it’s ok and understandable to be pretty fucked up by it.

Remember that even the official numbers, undercount that they are, still document that people here are dying of covid. The impacts of long covid are also becoming more and more apparent. Even after this wave is finally over we’ll still be grappling with the damage done to our friends and neighbors for a very long time to come.

Nothing lasts forever. That goes for covid waves as surely as it does anything else in this world. Taking the actions we can has a real, meaningful difference. We may be exhausted and frustrated, be we’re sure as hell not powerless.

COVID WAVE ALERT — September 24, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

After several weeks of good news on the covid front, this week saw a deeply frustrating one. Labor Day tourism and superspreader events stalled the previous decline, at least for now. Maybe, hopefully, that will change over the coming weeks. But we won’t know until it happens.

Virus in wastewater ticked back up, though not to the horrendous levels of a few weeks ago.

As wastewater’s one of the only covid measurements that reflects infections among the whole population — including tourists — rather than just local residents, it’s not hard to see where this comes from. We’re a little over two weeks out from Labor Day, which is the time when infections from a specific time period truly start to show up.

Test positivity also had similarly troubling news, staying roughly flat — at 15.7 percent compared to 15.6 last week — after weeks of rapid decline. This is not new: covid rates consistently spike after major holidays and tourism events. Hopefully community spread will resume declining in the coming weeks, but open schools with near-zero safeguards aren’t helping matters, and tourism’s set to have another big surge in the next few weeks when leaf season fully hits.

This is the problem with covid waves in a time of basically zero health protections: it doesn’t take much to bring them back. Surges are higher and more brutal, and declines slower. As before, “tourism at all costs” just means the cost is us.

Steps to take

Positivity rates remain, though narrowly, above the 15 percent rates that indicate extremely dangerous levels of community covid spread. That means that we have to keep in place the stricter protocols we recommended last week. Believe us, we hate having to write this, but the Blade‘s in the business of giving false good news.

Get the omicron booster — The availability of the omicron booster is a real shift and offers real protections, though we’ll have a clearer idea of its fully effectiveness as it’s studied further in the coming weeks and months. Given the declining effectiveness of the original round of vaccines and boosters, it’s important to get it now.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the booster. Contact them for more details.

This is an incredibly important step because boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid, they help prevent you from spreading it to your friends and neighbors as well. While the previous vaccines never totally lost their effectiveness against omicron, those variants’ ability to evade some of the vaccine’s protection has been a major part of them running rampant and sickening thousands. The omicron-specific booster decreases that danger.

Stay home as much as possible — A percent positivity above 15 percent indicates that there’s still some very real dangers out there. So tell your friends you’ll save indoor get-togethers for a bit, especially as it will likely be significantly less risky then as viral spread continues to decrease. Meet up in a park, preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread outside especially with prolonged, close maskless contact.

Avoid indoor bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and as rates still remain fairly high even two hours on a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for another week or two, do so. We’re still at the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in someone that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for a little while longer. If they get sour about it direct them to city hall and the tourism industry. Along with sacrificing the lives and health of many locals during this pandemic, they’ve made it harder for the rest of us to safely connect.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, don’t do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re indoors around someone who’s not part of your household or pod. Outdoors isn’t a bad idea too if you’ll be in close proximity for a long time.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates still high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives. Don’t emerge from isolation until you test negative.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests as well as N95 and KN95 masks to those in need.

Be strict about covid boundaries — It’s better to have some hard conversations than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. That’s especially the case when an expected decline doesn’t materialize. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some real danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too. Remember: the danger has been reduced but it has not gone away.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly hazardous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

Support each other — Mutual aid, in many forms, remains very necessary. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day again. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

Vent over phone or video— or take a walk outdoors — when you’ve had it with how wrenching and frustrating this all is. A sudden spike when we were expecting a decline is genuinely demoralizing news and it’s ok and understandable to be pretty fucked up by it.

Remember that even the official numbers, undercount that they are, still document that people here are dying of covid. The impacts of long covid are also becoming more and more apparent. Even after this wave is finally over we’ll still be grappling with the damage done to our friends and neighbors for a very long time to come.

This week made it clear that tourism is still killing us, still robbing us of our health and communities. Don’t help it.

COVID WAVE ALERT — September 16, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week saw continuing good news on the covid front in Asheville. Unlike previous dips the recent drop in covid numbers has, this time, turned into a full-fledged decline. Odds are we are finally seeing the last weeks of the wave that began all the way back in April. But it’s not quite over yet.

Virus in wastewater continued to drop sharply. Even accounting for an almost-certain misread of “zero” the other reading shows the lowest rates since the very first weeks of this wave.

Test positivity continues to see solid declines as well, dropping to 15.6 percent (down from 17.2 last week). If this continues then next week we should finally — for the first time since early June — see rates below the 15 percent line that indicates extreme levels of community spread.

Hopefully the omicron-specific booster, now widely available, will bolster that trend further. The news for much of this wave has been, honestly, incredibly bleak. It’s worth highlighting when some genuine good happens.

That said, plenty of people still get infected during a wave’s decline. The risks have decreased, they have not gone away, and a positivity rate above 15 percent still indicates plenty of community spread. This ain’t quite over yet.

Steps to take

Time periods like this — when a wave’s declining but hasn’t gone away yet can be tricky. But after some discussion the Blade‘s still recommending sticking, for the most part, to the stricter protocols necessary. Hopefully this will be the last week of this wave where they are. When the wave hit over 15 percent we said that we were emphasizing these in capital letters to communicate the level of increasing danger. Now, with dangers decreasing, we’re taking those off. It’s a small thing, but it helps indicate that while it’s not time to drop them yet, they don’t have quite the same catastrophe-level urgency they have for the past three months.

Get the omicron booster — The availability of the omicron booster is a major and welcome shift. Seriously: get it as soon as you can.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the booster. Contact them for more details.

This is an incredibly important step because boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid, they help prevent you from spreading it to your friends and neighbors as well. While the previous vaccines never totally lost their effectiveness against omicron, those variants’ ability to evade some of the vaccine’s protection has been a major part of them running rampant and sickening thousands. The omicron-specific booster massively decreases that danger.

Stay home as much as possible — A percent positivity above 15 percent indicates that there’s still some very real dangers out there. So tell your friends you’ll save indoor get-togethers for a week or so, especially as it will likely be significantly less risky then as viral spread continues to decrease. Meet up in a park, preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread outside especially with prolonged, close maskless contact.

Avoid indoor bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and as rates still remain fairly high even two hours on a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for another week or two, do so. We’re still at the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in someone that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for a little while longer.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, don’t do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re indoors around someone who’s not part of your household or pod. Outdoors isn’t a bad idea too if you’ll be in close proximity for a long time.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates still high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives. Don’t emerge from isolation until you test negative.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

Be strict about covid boundaries — It’s better to have some hard conversations than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some real danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too. Remember: the danger has been reduced but it has not gone away.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly hazardous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

Support each other — Mutual aid, in many forms, remains very necessary. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other. Vent over phone or video— or take a walk outdoors — when you’ve had it with how wrenching and frustrating this all is.

Remember that even the official numbers, undercount that they are, still document that people here are dying of covid. The impacts of long covid are also becoming more and more apparent. Even after this wave is finally over we’ll still be grappling with the damage done to our friends and neighbors for a very long time to come.

Still, for those of us who’ve survived this wave’s many dangers, a far less dangerous situation is hopefully just over the horizon. Let’s help each other get there.

COVID WAVE ALERT — September 10, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

Thanks for your patience, readers. This week’s update is a little later than usual due to the need to clarify some of the details around local availability of the new omicron-specific booster. – D.F.

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Finally, readers, Asheville has a week of unabashedly good covid news. This week saw major, real declines in the key indicators of community covid spread. Combined with the last few weeks, it seems we’re really seeing a serious decrease in the danger posed by this wave.

Virus in wastewater — one of the most accurate indicators of where our covid situation is right now — plunged to its lowest level since late April.

Test positivity, the other main measure, is also dropping quickly, down to 17.2 percent from 18.8 percetn last week. This marks the third straight weak of steady, sometimes rapid declines.

This week also brings another piece of excellent news: omicron-specific boosters are now widely available to anyone over the age of 12 and at least two months out from their last shot. We’ll get into this a more in this week’s “steps to take” section, but this is a very welcome development. Getting additional boosters to the wider population is way, way overdue and this booster happens to provide increased protection against omicron while it’s still circulating.

Anyone who’s read these updates before knows the Blade doesn’t hide bad news, like much of the media here do, in a time full of it. But this is a genuinely good development: get your shot as soon as you can.

That said, this is where the inevitable note of caution comes in, because 17.2 percent is still an incredibly high rate of transmission. It’s way lower than the rates over 20 percent we were cursed with a few weeks ago, but it still indicates a really risky situation.

It remains above the 15 percent level that generally indicates catastrophic levels of community spread. Hopefully that will not be the case for more than another week or two, but that is where we are.

Steps to take

As y’all are no doubt very familiar with now, levels still being above 15 percent means some fairly strict precautions are still necessary. However, we’re making one key shift to those this week, to emphasize a particularly important step locals can now take.

GET THE DAMN BOOSTER — The availability of the omicron booster is a major and welcome shift. Seriously: get it as soon as you can.

There are a number of options on this front. The Buncombe County health department clinic (located at 40 Coxe Ave) is offering free boosters, no appointment required, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The booster’s available to anyone over 12 who’s more than eight weeks out from their last shot.

Local pharmacies, including Walgreen’s, CVS and West Asheville’s B and B pharmacy, are also offering the booster. Contact them for more details.

Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid, they help prevent you from spreading it to your friends and neighbors as well. While the previous vaccines didn’t ever totally lose their effectiveness against omicron, those variants’ ability to evade some of the vaccine’s protection has been a major part of them running rampant and sickening thousands. The omicron-specific booster massively decreases that danger.

STAY THE HELL HOME — Even though rates have finally dropped back below 20 percent, a percent positivity above 15 percent is downright disastrous. So tell your friends you’ll save indoor get-togethers for a better time, especially as it will likely be significantly less risky in two weeks or so. Meet up in a park, preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread outside especially with prolonged, close maskless contact.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and as rates still remain fairly high even two hours on a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for another week or two, do so. We’re still at the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for a little while longer.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, don’t do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates still high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives. Don’t emerge from isolation until you test negative.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

BE STRICT ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some real danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly hazardous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, remains very necessary. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other. Vent over phone or video when you’ve had it with how wrenching and frustrating this all is.

Remember that even the official numbers, undercount that they are, still document that people here are dying of covid. The impacts of long covid are also becoming more apparent.

After nearly five months in this particularly hellish wave a less dangerous and nerve-wracking situation is right around the corner. But we still haven’t quite turned it yet. Hundreds, even thousands of people still get infected during a wave’s decline. So keep going, together, to protect each other from that danger.

COVID WAVE ALERT — September 2, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

If last week was “not quite as bleak as before” the news this one was, overall, far more promising. Test positivity — one the main measures of community covid spread — declined sharply, dropping to 18.8 percent from 21.4 percent last week.

That’s unabashedly good news. While we here at the Blade certainly defy the trend of downplaying how bad covid in our community is, that honesty cuts both ways. When real, positive news comes along we’ll say so.

Virus in wastewater — the other main accurate measure of community spread — wobbled a bit this week, with some readings at the higher and lower ends of what we’ve seen this wave. But overall, even accounting for that strange outlier reading two weeks ago — levels are down from their height this wave.

That said, though there is finally some real cause for optimism, it needs to be cautious optimism. While 18.8 percent positivity is a real improvement over the past few weeks, it remains an incredibly dangerous level of community spread by any objective standard. When rates drop closer to 15 and 10 percent we’ll finally see some seriously reduced dangers of infections.

As we’ve noted in recent weeks the sheer human toll of “do nothing ever” is becoming more apparent. Plenty of that is long covid, locals disabled or eventually killed by the damage covid’s done to their bodies.

Others are just outright dying. Twelve more covid deaths were reported this week, bringing Buncombe’s total for the pandemic to 636. That’s almost certainly a drastic undercount, but even that toll means that the Asheville area’s deaths per capita is one of the worst in the state.

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At various points in the pandemic Buncombe’s been the worst on that front, usually close with Guilford County, the site of Greensboro. That’s another city hard hit by the impacts of segregation and poverty. That is not a coincidence.

“Back to normal” has a very real and ugly cost. Sadly it’s one our communities will be paying for decades to come.

Steps to take

While our readers are no doubt as exhausted of reading this as we are of writing it, the fact remains that with rates still very high it’s still important to keep up some pretty strict precautions. Hopefully in the next week or two, if the current decline continues, that won’t be necessary. For now it very much is.

STAY THE HELL HOME — Even though rates have finally dropped back below 20 percent, a percent positivity above 15 percent is downright disastrous. So tell your friends you’ll save indoor get-togethers for a better time. Meet up in a park. Preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread outside especially with prolonged, close maskless contact.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and when rates are this high even two hours on a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for awhile, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being. If rates keep consistently going down, that will change. But right now they’re still pretty bad.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, don’t do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET A DAMN BOOSTER. GET A SECOND ONE IF YOU CAN — Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid. Even with omicron strains they significantly reduce the chance of you spreading it to others. There is some actual good news on this front, with an omicron-specific booster rolling out in the coming week. Run, do not walk, to get it. It will be widely available for adults and children over 12.

With the few businesses that still had vaccination requirements dropping them this is more important than ever.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free vaccinations.

BE STRICT ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some real danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly hazardous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other. Vent over phone or video when you’ve had it with how wrenching and frustrating this all is.

Remember that even the official numbers, undercount that they are, still document that people here are dying of covid. The impacts of long covid are also becoming more apparent.

As we’ve said before the hard fact is that anyone not taking basic covid precautions right now is betraying their communities and their friends. Even if the news keeps improving that will continue to be the case. The only way out of this is through, and the only way to get through is together.

COVID WAVE ALERT — August 25, 2022

Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Last week we noted that the outlook was downright bleak. This week it’s a bit less so, but just a bit. This week’s covid virus in local wastewater declined substantially — even after you factor for the weird, extremely high outlier reading last week.

Test positivity also went down, dropping from 22.9 percent (the highest of the entire wave) to 21.4 percent. That’s still really bad territory — anything over 15 percent is, over 20 percent definitely is — but it’s also a substantial drop for one week.

We won’t know for a few weeks if we are actually, finally seeing this goddamn wave fade to a less-than-catastrophic level of community spread. Still, any downward momentum is good.

That said, this update includes a bit more charts than usual, because the brutal costs of letting an incredibly contagious strain run rampant are becoming more apparent. Already we’re witnessing people in our communities die from the health complications of long covid. A lot of the time this doesn’t show up in the official covid numbers, which generally track those who die in the throes of an immediate infection.

But they are finally starting to show up elsewhere. While we don’t have local numbers, deaths from conditions associated with covid have skyrocketed this year, more than the previous two and far, far more than 2020-2021.

Asheville is not magically exempt from this fact. The rate of official covid deaths here is already one of the worst in the state compared to similar areas.

When we say that the ugly human toll of this spring and summer’s wave, of “do nothing ever” as covid spread more and more, will be with us for years to come we mean it. We’re not saying that to make things seem more dramatic or to get attention. It is the ugly reality. We wish to hell it weren’t, but it is. Every day people don’t face that makes it far worse.

Steps to take

Even with the somewhat promising decline this week the same strict precautions that are necessary ever since positivity broke 15 percent are still necessary. The fact these are being widely ignored does not change that. With rates still over 20 percent we’d just add exclamation points to the capitals and bold print. Until community covid spread decreases, for awhile, this is where we are.

STAY THE HELL HOME — A percent positivity above 15 percent is downright disastrous, above 20 is catastrophic. Minus some very sudden shift in public health protections it’s going to stay there for awhile. So tell your friends you’ll save indoor get-togethers for a better time. Meet up in a park. Preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread outside especially with prolonged, close maskless contact.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and when rates are this high even two hours on a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for awhile, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being. When the rates consistently come back down, that will change. But right now they’re still really bad.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, don’t do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET A DAMN BOOSTER. GET A SECOND ONE IF YOU CAN — Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid. Even with omicron strains they significantly reduce the chance of you spreading it to others. With the few businesses that still had vaccination requirements dropping them this is more important than ever. If you can get a second booster absolutely do; they massively decrease the impacts of covid, even from the omicron strains. These should honestly be standard for the adult population by now, but the CDC was concerned approving it would make them look bad.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free vaccinations.

BE STRICT ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some real danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly hazardous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other. Vent over phone or video when you’ve had it with how wrenching and frustrating this all is.

Over the past weeks, we’ve started to see the effects of long covid — people’s lives and immune systems wrecked — mount. While we knew this was coming, that does not make it any less tragic.

The hard fact is that anyone not taking basic covid precautions right now is betraying their communities and their friends. Fortunately some are taking the opposite course, but it will still be a long time before we’re out of this.

COVID WAVE ALERT — August 19, 2022

This alert was delayed by a day due to editor David Forbes dealing with the aftermath of a car wreck (fortunately she’s physically unharmed). Blade journalist Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

The outlook this week is downright bleak. Last week there were some tentative signs the covid wave that’s been tearing through our communities since April might finally be losing some steam.

But then this week’s covid numbers were…strange. For one, virus in wastewater showed an incredibly high rate. Like astronomically high, so high it eclipsed the highest rate ever detected in Asheville/Buncombe. By far.

Now we at the Blade aren’t the type to downplay bad news, to put it mildly, but this is almost certainly an outlier or a misread. Indeed the second wastewater reading showed one more in line with where the wave’s gone so far.

That said, that’s not particularly a cause for relief, as that second wastewater reading showed covid spread worse (though narrowly) than any other so far in this long wave. Instead of a sudden spike, we’re seeing an already bad wave get steadily worse.

The test positivity rate backs this up, as it show up to 22.9 percent, up from 21.5 percent last week, meaning already catastrophic levels of covid community spread are getting even worse. Last week’s rate broke the record for this wave so far. This week’s is worse than that.

This is what “do nothing ever” looks like: a seemingly never ending wave of covid hitting, hospitalizing and killing people but never really diminishing because there are damn near zero public health protections. It’s bleak, and we’ll be dealing with the consequences for years to come.

Steps to take

The same strict precautions that are necessary ever since positivity broke 15 percent are still necessary. The fact these are being widely ignored does not change that. With rates now substantially over 20 percent we’d just add exclamation points to the capitals and bold print. Until community covid spread substantially decreases this is where we are.

STAY THE HELL HOME — A percent positivity above 15 percent is downright disastrous, above 20 is catastrophic. Minus some very sudden shift in public health protections it’s going to stay there for a long time. The virus still increasing after this long a wave is really, really bad. So tell your friends you’ll save indoor get-togethers for a better time. Meet up in a park. Preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread especially with prolonged, close maskless contact.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and when rates are this high even two hours on a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for awhile, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being. When the rates consistently come back down, that will change. But right now they’re still really bad.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, don’t do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET A DAMN BOOSTER. GET A SECOND ONE IF YOU CAN — Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid. Even with omicron strains they significantly reduce the chance of you spreading it to others. With the few businesses that still had vaccination requirements dropping them this is more important than ever. If you can get a second booster absolutely do; they massively decrease the impacts of covid, even from the omicron strains. These should honestly be standard for the adult population by now, but the CDC was concerned approving it would make them look bad.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE STRICT ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some real danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly hazardous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

Over the past weeks, we’ve started to see the effects of long covid — people’s lives and immune systems wrecked, especially after repeated infection — mount. While we knew this was coming, that does not make it any less tragic.

The hard fact is that anyone not taking basic covid precautions right now is betraying their communities and their friends. Thousands in our city will have to suffer the damage from that for the rest of their lives.

COVID WAVE ALERT — August 11, 2022

Blade journalist Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week saw some signs that maybe (repeat: maybe) Asheville’s long covid wave is finally starting to fall. Virus in wastewater fell substantially, with one of the readings its lowest level since late May.

But when it came to test positivity, the other main accurate measure of the current spread of covid in our community, the news is a lot more bleak. That rate shot up to 21.5 percent, the worst of the entire long wave.

Now wastewater is usually the first measure of where a wave is going, followed a bit by positivity (basically covid shows up in wastewater before a test confirms an infection), so in coming weeks we may see that decline. But for now covid is still running absolutely rampant in our communities and the risks of many activities is really, really bad.

Since this wave started at least 66 locals have died of covid (that’s almost certainly an undercount). By the time it likely ends we’ll almost certainly have more confirmed deaths from this wave than from the winter omicron wave. But government, business and far too many communities are still acting like this wave doesn’t exist.

We’ve talked about the three main factors driving this a lot in these alerts — the hyper-contagious BA.5 variant, tourism and zero public health protections. It’s worth noting we’re heading into the season where tourism dips a bit before leaf season hits.

But we’re also heading into school season with basically zero protections. That could cause this excruciatingly long covid wave to surge again. We’ll find out in the coming weeks.

Steps to take

There’s not much the Blade can recommend beyond the strict precautions that have been necessary ever since positivity broke 15 percent. With it now substantially over 20 percent we’d just add exclamation points to the capitals and bold print. We really, really hope we’re in the last weeks of having to do this (believe me, the Blade co-op’s exhausted as y’all are) but until community covid spread substantially decreases this is where we are.

STAY THE HELL HOME — A percent positivity above 15 percent is downright disastrous, above 20 is catastrophic. Minus some very sudden shift in public health protections it’s going to stay there for a long time. The virus still increasing after this long a wave is really, really bad. So tell your friends you’ll save indoor get-togethers for a better time. Meet up in a park. Preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread especially with prolonged maskless contact.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and when rates are this high even a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for awhile, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being. When the rates consistently come back down, that will change. But right now they’re still really bad.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, will not do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET A DAMN BOOSTER. GET A SECOND ONE IF YOU CAN — Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid. Even with omicron strains they significantly reduce the chance of you spreading it to others. With the few businesses that still had vaccination requirements dropping them this is more important than ever. If you can get a second booster absolutely do; they massively decrease the impacts of covid, even from the omicron strains. These should honestly be standard for the adult population by now, but the CDC was concerned approving it would make them look bad.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE STRICT ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some real danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly hazardous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

We seriously hope that we’re not seeing another one of this wave’s false declines, and that this wave, is finally, truly starting to end. But we ain’t quite there yet. Until we are we need to stick to what keeps ups all safe.

COVID WAVE ALERT — August 4, 2022

Blade journalist Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week Asheville’s longest covid wave ever hit its worst point yet, with virus in wastewater shooting up significantly.

For a wave that’s already been burning on since late April, that’s particularly disturbing. Even more troubling was the continued climb in the test positivity rate — the other accurate measure of community spread — which hit 20.3 percent, its worst rate of the wave.

North Carolina’s state health department actually delayed reporting the local positivity rates by over a day, which is one reason this alert is a little later than usual.

Troublingly, twelve confirmed covid deaths were also reported this week, the highest of any week of this wave. Covid deaths are the last thing to increase in a wave, as those who got infected weeks or even months earlier lose their lives to the virus. That’s almost certainly an undercount, and there will sadly be more to come.

This is the result of far too many in this city — starting with government and business — pretending like everything is fine when it absolutely, definitely is not. Instead of going away, things that one ignores just keep getting worse. It’s a lesson plenty in Asheville never seem to learn, and the pandemic is a particularly horrific example.

The virus will eventually, at least for awhile, decline after infecting everything it can easily hit. But that can take awhile. When it finally does so apathy, greed and astounding incompetence will have ensured it killed and devastated far more than it ever had to.

Steps to take

There’s not much the Blade can recommend beyond the strict precautions that have been necessary ever since positivity broke 15 percent. With it now over 20 percent we’d just add exclamation points to the bold print. Seriously, we mean it. Follow these as much as you and those around you can.

STAY THE HELL HOME — A percent positivity above 15 percent is downright disastrous, and minus some very sudden shift in public health protections it’s going to stay there for a long time. The virus still increasing after this long a wave is really, really bad. So tell your friends you’ll save indoor get-togethers for a better time. Meet up in a park. Preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread especially with prolonged maskless contact.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and when rates are this high even a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for awhile, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being. When the rates consistently come back down, that will change. But right now they’re still really bad.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, will not do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET A DAMN BOOSTER. GET A SECOND ONE IF YOU CAN — Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid. Even with omicron strains they significantly reduce the chance of you spreading it to others. With the few businesses that still had vaccination requirements dropping them this is more important than ever. If you can get a second booster absolutely do; they massively decrease the impacts of covid, even from the omicron strains. These should honestly be standard for the adult population by now, but the CDC was concerned approving it would make them look bad.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE STRICT ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations now than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some serious danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly dangerous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

It’s once again hard to know what to write this week. These are awful, unprecedented times. We hope everyone reading this will take the above seriously and do the best we can. We’re all we’ve got.

COVID WAVE ALERT — July 28, 2022

Blade journalist Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

Asheville is now in an awful and unprecedented situation: a dangerous covid plateau. While covid rates have stayed static for prolonged periods before, it’s been at fairly low levels. Especially as variants get more infectious it’s rare to see them just linger for a prolonged period of time.

But that’s what we’re facing, as covid virus in local wastewater shows.

Given how contagious omicron variants are, when the current wave started in late April I think many of us expected it to be more similar in shape to the winter omicron wave: some very dangerous weeks of widespread infections followed by a fairly quick decline.

But this is, again, the first wave with no public health protections. That dragged things out. Then, when the wave had started to finally decline last month, the ultra-contagious BA.5 variant hit, creating a double wave. Positivity rates — the other main measure of the danger of infection at a given time — have stayed sky high for over two months now. This week they shot up again, to a horrific 19.4 percent.

Basically, Asheville’s refusal to acknowledge the massive covid wave hitting our community just means that it never goddamn ends.

Nothing lasts forever, of course, but by all signs it’s going to be this way for a long time.

Steps to take

Look, we’re as tired of writing these lists as you no doubt are of reading them. The Blade includes high-risk people in our co-op and months of quasi-isolation from our friends and communities is not our idea of a good time. But as long as covid rates remain this stunningly high, that’s the reality we’re in. Ignoring that puts yourself and others at real risk.

So, yes, strict precautions are still necessary to keep us all safe. When covid spread in our community decreases, these won’t be as necessary. But until it does, they are.

STAY THE HELL HOME — A percent positivity above 15 percent is downright disastrous, and minus some very sudden shift in public health protections it’s going to stay there for a long time. A plateau at this high a level is really bad. So tell your friends you’ll save indoor get-togethers for a better time. Meet up in a park. Preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread especially with prolonged maskless contact.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and when rates are this high even a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for awhile, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being. When the rates consistently come back down, that will change. But right now they’re still really bad.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, will not do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET A DAMN BOOSTER. GET A SECOND ONE IF YOU CAN — Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid. Even with omicron strains they significantly reduce the chance of you spreading it to others. With the few businesses that still had vaccination requirements dropping them this is more important than ever. If you can get a second booster absolutely do; they massively decrease the impacts of covid, even from the omicron strains. These should honestly be standard for the adult population by now, but they’re particularly important for older and higher-risk people.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE STRICT ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations now than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some serious danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly dangerous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

This is one of those weeks where it’s hard to know what to write. We’re in a very dangerous, unprecedented situation in an already dangerous, unprecedented wave. Odds are it’s not going to let up for awhile to come. The only good option’s just to keep taking it seriously and moving forward one step at a time.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — July 21, 2022

Blade journalist Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week saw Asheville fully in the throes of the double covid wave, with key measurements staying at dangerously high levels. While this wave’s gone on longer than any before, the factors driving it — more infectious omicron variants, zero public health precautions and tourism — haven’t gone anywhere, so it’s going to do a lot of damage for awhile to come.

Virus in wastewater stayed at a very high rate, higher than last summer’s peak during the delta wave. It’s been there for well over a month.

The test positivity rate — the other main measure of community spread — ticked down a bit this past week, from 19.2 percent to 18.2 percent. But that’s still an incredibly high level of community spread.

Behind a lot of this is the BA.5 variant, which has taken over from the earlier omicron variants that kicked off the current wave in mid-April.

Some epidemiologists estimate that BA.5 is about as contagious as measles — up until now the most contagious known disease — and given the results we’re seeing that’s not hard to believe. The variant now accounts for about half of the covid cases detected statewide, and community spread’s skyrocketed accordingly.

While nothing lasts forever, BA.5 has the ability to reinfect those previously infected by omicron, which means a lot of people who got covid during the winter wave are getting it again, weakening their bodies and immune systems. The Blade‘s alerts have warned about this for weeks, but with the variant fully here Asheville’s wave could linger for another devastating month or more. It is infinitely aided by the lack of public health protections and rampant tourism.

Steps to take

The drop in positivity rate — probably due to the passing of the July 4 holiday and some increased mask wearing and precautions at the group and community levels — is the only good news this past week. But we won’t know for awhile if it means any actual decrease in infectiousness. The stricter precautions that were necessary after we hit over 15 percent remain the rule. We don’t enjoy writing these week after week as much as y’all don’t enjoy seeing them. But this is the reality of where we are and ignoring the dangers of the virus is a major reason we’re here. With each other’s support we can make it through.

STAY THE HELL HOME — A percent positivity above 15 percent is downright disastrous, and minus some very sudden shift in public health protections it’s going to stay there for a long time. So tell your friends you’ll save indoor get-togethers for a better time. Meet up in a park. Preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread especially with prolonged maskless contact.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and when rates are this high even a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for awhile, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being. When the rates consistently come back down, that will change. But right now they’re still really bad.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, will not do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET A DAMN BOOSTER — Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid. Even with omicron strains they significantly reduce the chance of you spreading it to others. With the few businesses that still had vaccination requirements dropping them this is more important than ever. If you can get a second booster absolutely do. These should honestly be standard for the adult population by now, but they’re particularly important for older and vulnerable people.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE STRICT ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations now than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some serious danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly dangerous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

It’s natural to be exhausted, frustrated and depressed. This is an ugly, wrenching slog of a covid wave. Together’s the only way we’ll make it through.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — July 15, 2022

Our apologies for the delay in this week’s covid alert. Editor David Forbes was grappling with illness (fortunately not covid)

Blade journalist Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week confirmed that Asheville is moving into something truly horrible: a double covid wave. A few weeks ago there were solid signs that the covid wave that started in late April had finally started to decline.

But then came BA.5, an incredibly contagious new omicron variant. Importantly, this can reinfect those who’ve had omicron before, especially those who got it during the winter wave. Combined with a complete lack of public health protections and a massive tourist season this plunged the area back into another ugly wave. Given that governments, business and, sadly, plenty of communities still aren’t taking this seriously we’ll likely be in that very dangerous place for some time to come.

Virus in wastewater went back up this week, signaling the double wave.

Test positivity — the other main indicator of community covid spread — shot up again to a devastating 19.2 percent, a level that shows incredible risk. Deaths and hospitalizations are finally starting to rise as well, as this wave has ground on since late April.

This is what “hell with it, everyone’s going to get it” looks like. The results are horrific.

Steps to take

A positivity rate of 19.2 percent is stunningly bad; covid’s not been this pervasive since the height of the winter wave, and this one’s ground on for far longer. The stricter precautions that were necessary after we hit over 15 percent are even moreso now, and will be the rule for awhile to come. We don’t enjoy writing these week after week as much as y’all don’t enjoy seeing them. But this is the reality of where we are and ignoring the dangers of the virus is a major reason we’re here. With each other’s support we can make it through.

STAY THE HELL HOME — A percent positivity above 15 percent is downright disastrous, and minus some very sudden shift in public health protections it’s going to stay there for a long time. So tell your friends you’ll save indoor get-togethers for a better time. Meet up in a park. Preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread especially with prolonged maskless contact.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and when rates are this high even a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for awhile, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being. When the rates consistently come back down, that will change. But right now they’re still really bad.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, will not do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET A DAMN BOOSTER — Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid. Even with omicron strains they significantly reduce the chance of you spreading it to others. With the few businesses that still had vaccination requirements dropping them this is more important than ever. If you can get a second booster absolutely do. These should honestly be standard for the adult population by now, but they’re particularly important for older and vulnerable people.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE STRICT ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations now than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some serious danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly dangerous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

We are the only ones who can keep us safe, especially right now when getting through the wave is a grueling slog. For that to work we have to mean it.

We will get through this, but this next month is going to be hard.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — July 7, 2022

Blade journalist Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week the covid wave that seemingly never ends continued to not end. While virus in wastewater ticked down a bit, test positivity shot up to its worst level since this wave started.

Wastewater is generally the first measurement of the direction of a wave. Covid virus shows up there before it registers on a test. That said, we’ve seen wastewater fluctuate before during this wave, but continue to stay at fairly high levels. Even if this week’s wastewater is an early sign that this wave is finally, truly starting to lose strength, we’ve still got some very dangerous weeks left.

Test positivity meanwhile, shot up to a devastating 18.3 percent, from 16 percent last week. That’s the worst level since the start of this covid wave and it shows widespread, catastrophic and worsening levels of community spread. Six people died from covid this past week, almost certainly an undercount.

This week also marks a grim milestone. At this point it’s lasted the longest of any local covid wave, with higher rates than any except the omicron winter wave.

This is because this is the first wave with zero public health protections, removing an important check on the spread of the virus. In addition this wave has seen multiple highly-infectious variants hit within the same wave.

When this wave started, the BA 2.1.2 omicron variant was driving it. But now that’s diminishing in the face of the BA 4 and BA 5 variants, which have re-sparked the wave when it looked like it had started to finally weaken. Those latter variants can also reinfect those who survived some of the earlier omicron waves, meaning plenty of people who had covid this past winter are getting it again now. Combine that with a hyper-busy tourism season and the result is devastating.

We will be living with the terrible consequences of this summer for years, even decades, to come.

Steps to take

A positivity rate of 18.3 percent is the worst we’ve seen so far and is an incredibly high level of covid spread. The stricter precautions that were necessary after we hit over 15 percent are even moreso now, and likely will be for some time to some. We don’t enjoy writing these week after week as much as y’all don’t enjoy seeing them. But this is the reality of where we are and ignoring the dangers of the virus is a major reason we’re here. With each other’s support we can make it through.

STAY THE HELL HOME — A percent positivity above 15 percent is downright disastrous, and right now we’re not seeing much sign of it dropping for at least weeks to come. So tell your friends you’ll save indoor get-togethers for a few weeks. Meet up in a park. Preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread especially with prolonged maskless contact.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and when rates are this high even a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for awhile, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being. When the rates consistently come back down, that will change. But right now they’re still really bad.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, will not do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not when you do have to risk exposure.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET A DAMN BOOSTER — Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid. Even with omicron strains they significantly reduce the chance of you spreading it to others. With the few businesses that still had vaccination requirements dropping them this is more important than ever.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE MEAN ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations now than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some serious danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly dangerous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

We are the only ones who can keep us safe, especially right now when getting through the wave is a grueling slog. For that to work we have to mean it.

This virus is merciless; we don’t have to be.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — June 30, 2022

Blade journalist Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week saw the hopes of the last two largely dashed, as the local covid wave seemingly reversed its declining course. Virus in wastewater and test positivity both ticked up. They’re not skyrocketing (yet), but they’re lingering in some very dangerous territory.

After declining for the last two weeks — sharply last week — positivity shot back up from 15.2 percent to 16 percent. Not a huge increase, but sizable enough to be worrisome, especially as it still indicates a catastrophic level of community spread.

It’s worth delving a bit into why this wave is lingering so long, and why it’s seemingly re-started after what looked like a pretty noticeable decline. Generally covid waves have followed a distinct pattern, running rampant for a given time before declining again. The more contagious the strain (and omicron is very contagious), the sharper the rise and the faster the fall.

So what’s happening with this wave that seemingly never ends?

Well this wave is the first with just about zero public health protections in place.  Local governments have completely abandoned the very idea of covid protections, not even bringing back the fairly weak mask mandate they’d put in place (usually late) when previous waves escalated. Businesses have, almost universally, ditched all precautions as well. So have far, far too many communities and events.

Not just that, but those who continue to keep basic covid precautions are actually facing stigmatization and pressure not to do so, even in some fairly lefty circles. So aside from some individuals, households and groups still taking the pandemic seriously there is nothing standing in the way of an incredibly infectious disease.

Then there’s the fact that omicron, much moreso than previous strains, can infect people multiple times. This is especially true of the BA.4 and BA.5 variants, which can infect even those who’ve made it through previous omicron strains. Those two variants are surging across the state, raising the very grim possibility that we’re no longer dealing with one wave, but multiple, overlapping ones.

Lastly, there is the bane of Asheville’s survival: tourism. It’s the height of “pretend covid doesn’t exist” tourist season, and that industry is just about the worst one you can have roaring during a pandemic, bringing in constant waves of infected people to hit the local population even when they’ve built up some resistance.

All those factors combine to create a perfect environment for covid to run rampant. A prolonged, grueling wave is the result. Multiple covid infections can cause serious organ damage and increase the likelihood of long covid. We will be dealing with the disability and death caused by the refusal to check these waves waves for years to come.

Steps to take

Last week, with rates sharply dropping, the Blade tentatively recommended that some of the stricter precautions could be relaxed. While that was based on the best information we had at the time, it’s now clear that was premature. Unlike state and local health agencies, we own up to our mistakes and try to correct them as quickly as possible.

With positivity lingering at 16 percent we’re firmly back in “seriously, stay home” territory.

STAY THE HELL HOME — A percent positivity above 15 percent is downright disastrous, and right now we’re not seeing much sign of it dropping below that for the next week or two. So tell your friends you’ll catch up with them in a few weeks unless the idea is for you and one or two other people to meet in a park. Preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile. Outdoor activities are far, far less risky, but covid can still spread especially with prolonged maskless contact.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and when rates are this high even a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for a week or two, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being. When the rates consistently come back down, that will change. But right now they’re still really bad.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, will not do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET A DAMN BOOSTER — Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid. Even with omicron strains they significantly reduce the chance of you spreading it to others. With the few businesses that still had vaccination requirements dropping them this is more important than ever.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE MEAN ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations now than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some serious danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.” While gentry governments and greedy businesses rightly deserve the lion’s share of the blame, the current grinding covid wave is partly a community failure too.

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly dangerous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

We are the only ones who can keep us safe, especially right now when getting through the wave is a grueling slog. For that to work we have to mean it.

Nothing lasts forever, including covid waves, but every sign remains that we’ve still got a long way to go.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — June 23, 2022

Blade journalist Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week the wave finally, sharply started to decline. Virus in wastewater and test positivity — two of the most accurate measures of covid spread in our community — both declined sharply.

Positivity declined for a second week in a row since this wave began in late April, and it did so sharply: from 17.2 percent to 15.2 percent.

Still, covid remains incredibly infectious in our community. The wave’s declining, but it’s definitely not over. A lot of people still get infected in the weeks after a covid wave has crested. As we’ll get to more in the next section, while the Blade believes some of the strictest precautions can be relaxed, a bit, it’s still worth taking extra care in the coming weeks until rates are down far more than they are now.

Steps to take

As rates are rapidly dropping below 15 percent, the Blade believes some of the strictest precautions necessary during the last few weeks of catastrophic spread can be relaxed. But other basic precautions still need to be taken in the coming weeks until the virus is less rampant in our communities.

So there’s not as much need to stay home (except for work or emergencies) as there was the past two weeks, but it’s not back to pre-wave days either.

Avoid crowded indoor events, dining and drinking — While the declining spread of the virus means that staying home isn’t quite as necessary as before, events like crowded dance parties, indoor dining and drinking still remain really risky given the relatively high level of community spread. Generally if you’re going to do something social at this point, keep it outdoors and wear masks when you’re around people outside your household or a defined pod.

Shift everything you can to no-contact pick-up or delivery — Errands are a major risk when infections are this high, especially as most stores aren’t enforcing mask requirements. Anything you can do to avoid or minimize them for the next few weeks is key right now. Get groceries curbside, pick up vegetables from an open-air farmstand, take a delivery option if that’s available. If you stocked up supplies earlier, it’s still a good idea to keep using them. We’re not quite at the point where errands are reliably safe again.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. Those of us writing this struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other.

You must wear an N95 mask if you don’t want you or those around you to get infected. Rapid test when possibly exposed — Cloth masks simply do not cut it, nor do surgical masks. You need to wear an N95-level mask any time you come into contact with others outside those you live with or small groups who are taking careful precautions. Preferably double-mask with a cloth mask over an N95.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test three days after and isolate as much as possible until then.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

Get a booster — Omicron variants hit those vaccinated with two shots of the moderna/phizer vaccines (or one of the Johnson and Johnson) far harder than previous variants. To be better protected against a breakthrough case and drastically decrease the risk of transmitting to others, you need to get a booster shot. Indeed, if a second booster is available to you (for those over 50 or the immunocompromised) get one of those too.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

Stay vigilant — Ironically now; when the end of this wave is likely a few weeks away, can actually be one of the most difficult times in this part of the pandemic. Enduring pandemic waves and keeping yourself and others safe can often be frustrating and exhausting. It’s tempting, when things are so close to being a lot safer, to throw caution to the wind.

Don’t. Talk to each other, be clear about what the risks are right now and what you and those close to you need to do to navigate the last weeks of this wave.

We are making it through, but we’re not quite there yet. We still keep us safe.

Nothing lasts forever, including covid waves, but every sign remains that we’ve still got a long way to go.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — June 16, 2022

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week there were some small signs that the covid wave in Asheville/Buncombe may have finally stalled. Virus in local wastewater — one of the most single accurate measures of community spread — declined slightly from last week.

Test positivity finally dropped for the first time since the wave started.

But if the wave’s starting to stall, it’s doing so in what remains a highly dangerous situation. The positivity rate is still 17.2 percent — still a catastrophically high level of community spread — and wastewater rates are still at levels higher than the worst of last summer’s delta wave and not seen since the winter omicron wave. So far there aren’t signs of a rapid decline. Also, as we know all too well, waves can resurge. The total lack of public health protections makes that tragically far more likely than previous waves.

Stay cautious: we ain’t out of this yet.

Steps to take

As rates remain above 15 percent — indicating a highly dangerous level of community spread — the Blade continues to recommend a fairly strict set of precautions to protect yourself and others. The gist is to stay home as much as possible except for emergencies and work. Importantly, it also means helping others do the same.

STAY THE HELL HOME — Even if it’s not getting worse (for the moment) a percent positivity above 15 percent is downright disastrous. Tell your friends you’ll catch up with them in a few weeks unless the idea is for you and one or two other people to meet in a park. Preferably while wearing masks if you plan to be in close contact for awhile.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements (a key part of slowing or stopping community spread). Omicron variants are really contagious and when rates are this high even a crowded outdoor patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for a week or two, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being. When the rates come back down, that will change. But right now they’re still really bad.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, will not do much against omicron. With more infectious strains the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95-level mask any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the difference between getting covid and not.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET A DAMN BOOSTER — Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid. Even with omicron strains they significantly reduce the chance of you spreading it to others. With the few businesses that had vaccination requirements now removing them this is more important than ever.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE MEAN ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations now than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some serious danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.”

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly dangerous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual aid, in many forms, needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to be the order of the day now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, some communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

We are the only ones who can keep us safe, especially right now when getting through the wave is a grueling slog. For that to work we have to mean it.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — June 9, 2022

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week Asheville’s covid wave got worse. Way worse. Virus in local wastewater — probably the most accurate measure of community spread — skyrocketed.

We’re now looking at virus in wastewater rates getting into territory only seen before during the worst of the winter wave.

Test positivity rate also kept climbing, to a downright catastrophic 17.4 percent. That indicates an extreme and dangerous level of community spread. Deaths are also starting to increase. Nine locals died from confirmed covid cases this past week. That’s almost certainly an undercount.

While the Asheville area been through plenty of covid waves before, this is the first with absolutely zero public health protections. Even a basic step like reviving the mask mandate is, so far, not even being considered by local governments.

Community precautions have, in the past, helped blunt the pandemic’s spread in the face of government inaction. But those are almost completely gone now. While plenty continue to take covid seriously, mask and vaccine requirements have virtually disappeared in events and spaces throughout Asheville. Even those who try to stay home and stay safe can face peer pressure and social isolation; the opposite response of what’s necessary to curb the spread of the virus.

The result is a very bleak, very dangerous situation: a covid wave sickening vast numbers of people, even killing some of them, with no public precautions or protections, Unless that changes we’ll be in this for a long time to come.

Steps to take

With covid test positivity rates breaching 15 percent last week the Blade recommended a new, stricter set of precautions. That’s still the case this week, except with even more emphasis and one important addition. The gist is to stay home as much as possible except for emergencies and work. Importantly, help others do the same.

These precautions are the result of hard experience, public health data and information from those with significant epidemiology experience. As always, emergencies or situations people are compelled to be in — like work — may mean that one can’t always follow these. But the more you can, the safer you and others will be.

STAY THE HELL HOME — Seriously, above 15 percent positivity rate is downright disastrous, 17.4 percent is extremely so. Cancel plans. Tell your friends you’ll catch up with them in a few weeks unless the idea is for you and one or two other people to meet in a park. While wearing masks.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague, especially as almost all of them have dropped vaccine requirements. Omicron variants are really contagious and when rates are this high a crowded outdoors patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for a week or two, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being. When the rates come back down, that will change. But right now they’re really, really bad.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, will not do much against omicron. With more infectious strains, the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95 any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the different between getting covid and not.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET A DAMN BOOSTER — Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid. Even with omicron strains they significantly reduce the chance of you spreading it to others. With the few businesses that had vaccination requirements now removing them this is more important than ever.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE MEAN ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations now than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some serious danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.”

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly dangerous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

SUPPORT EACH OTHER — Mutual and community aid needs to make a major comeback. During the height of the first pandemic waves it was a pretty common sight to see locals dropping off food and supplies for each other. That needs to make a big comeback now. Higher-risk people are being widely treated as expendable by government, businesses and, sadly, plenty of communities. The opposite response is needed. Drop off a home-cooked meal. Grab something a friend needs if you have access and they don’t. Check in on each other.

We are the only ones who can keep us safe. For that to work we have to mean it.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — June 2, 2022

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

For about two weeks it looked like Asheville’s covid wave had finally peaked. But, alarmingly, this wasn’t the case. This week the amount of covid in local wastewater shot back up.

Crucially, the rate of positive tests is now 15 percent, meaning a catastrophic, rampant level of spread in our communities. Five percent positivity is cause for alarm, over 10 percent is a major problem. Over 15 percent is very, very bad news.

Notably, excess deaths statewide have gone up as well. While most of these aren’t in the formal number of covid deaths, that is acknowledged by every public health professional as a drastic undercount. Excess deaths are a major measure of the actual impact of covid (including long covid deaths of those who may have first been infected months or even years ago) and North Carolina’s are way, way up during this wave.

While waves do eventually go down, this is the first one Asheville’s facing with absolutely zero public health precautions (local governments aren’t even considering bringing back the mask mandate). That and a holiday weekend in the middle of tourism season are a recipe for disaster.

Steps to take

The incredibly high rate of infection means that stricter precautions are necessary to avoid getting covid or spreading it to others: what was possible with some safety a few weeks ago is incredibly dangerous now. The following precautions are the result of hard experience, public health data and information from those with significant epidemiology experience. As always, emergencies or situations people are compelled to be in may mean that one can’t always follow these. But the more you can, the safer you and others will be.

Given the heightening level of danger, some of these will be even more direct than previous alerts.

STAY THE HELL HOME — Seriously, above 15 percent positivity rate is downright disastrous. Cancel plans. Tell your friends you’ll catch up with them in a few weeks unless the idea is for you and one or two other people to meet in a park. While wearing masks.

Don’t go out. Avoid bars and restaurants like, well, the plague. Omicron variants are really contagious and when rates are this high a crowded outdoors patio can still be plenty risky.

Anything you can get curbside, no-contact or delivery, do. Any errand you can put off for a week or two, do so. This is the point in a wave where waiting in line at the grocery store, masked, can still get you covid.

Unless someone is in your household or in a covid pod that you’ve set up clear testing and quarantine agreements with, avoid close contact for the time being. When the rates come back down, that will change. But right now they’re really, really bad.

WEAR AN N95. RAPID TEST. — Cloth masks, as we keep saying here, will not do much against omicron. With more infectious strains, the risks have changed. To protect yourself and others you now need to wear an N95 any time you’re around someone who’s not part of your household or pod.

Don’t assume masks aren’t useful if no one else is wearing one. As infectious as omicron is, an N95 (preferably with another mask tightly over it) still provides solid protection for well over an hour. That’s not an excuse to push your luck or go into dangerous situations, but it can mean the different between getting covid and not.

With rates this high, knowing if you’ve been infected is key. If you think you might have been exposed, isolate as much as possible for three days and take one. This has literally saved lives.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

GET A DAMN BOOSTER — Boosters don’t just protect you from the worst impacts of covid. Even with omicron strains they significantly reduce the chance of you spreading it to others. With the few businesses that had vaccination requirements now removing them this is more important than ever.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

BE MEAN ABOUT COVID — It’s better to have some hard conversations now than wreck someone’s life or health because it was socially inconvenient. Sadly there are still far, far too. many unwilling to take this covid wave seriously. This has led to some serious danger to our community, especially to immunocompromised and higher-risk people who are currently being widely treated as expendable in the rush “back to normal.”

So be blunt. Hell, be rude if you see something particularly dangerous being done for no good reason and you speaking up could at all change that. Nice doesn’t save lives.

Just because you’re done with covid doesn’t mean covid is done with you. Or your neighbors. Or your friends. Or your loved ones.

We are the only ones who can keep us safe.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — May 26, 2022

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe. It also contains a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week, finally, the covid wave in Asheville started to peak. The amount of covid in local wastewater started to noticeably drop. Wastewater is generally the first sign a covid wave is changing direction.

Test positivity rate kept rising, from 11.7 percent to 13.2 percent, but more slowly than before. Weekly cases also went up, from 717 to 853. But there too, the increase was slower than before.

Remember that “the covid wave has peaked” is similar to “the hurricane has become a tropical storm.” Things remain very dangerous and this wave isn’t over yet. A positivity rate over 5 percent shows substantial spread of the virus. When it breaks 10 percent that indicates a widespread and dangerous threat of infection. For the time being we’re still there.

Steps to take

Due to the continuing danger, the fairly strict precautions needed during the past two weeks are still necessary now. These are the result of experience, public health data and information from those with significant epidemiology experience. Individuals may not be able to adopt all of them all of the time due to the limits of their lives or environments they’re compelled to be in. But the more of these one can stick to, the safer you, those around you and the wider community will be.

Cancel plans and cut back on social events — The current rate of infectiousness still means that some activities that could be done with a fair amount of safety a month ago simply can’t now. Avoid being around groups of people aside from close friends or connections whose precautions and risk levels you know, especially indoors. Stop going into bars and restaurants where you’ll need to take masks off in-doors, especially those that don’t require vaccination (the vast majority do not).

Don’t go to concerts or other events that will involve being near groups of strangers for long periods of time. This is the time in a covid wave they inevitably turn into really ugly super-spreader events.

Shift everything you can to no-contact pick-up or delivery — Errands are a major risk when infections are this high, especially as most stores aren’t enforcing mask requirements. Anything you can do to avoid or minimize them for the next few weeks is key right now. Get groceries curbside, pick up vegetables from an open-air farmstand, take a delivery option if that’s available. If you stocked up supplies before this stage of the wave, now’s the time to use them.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. Those of us writing this struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other.

You must wear an N95 mask if you don’t want you or those around you to get infected. Rapid test when possibly exposed — Cloth masks simply do not cut it at this point in the pandemic, nor do surgical masks. You need to wear an N95-level mask any time you come into contact with others outside those you live with or small groups who are taking careful precautions. Preferably double-mask with a cloth mask over an N95.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test three days after and isolate as much as possible until then.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and KN95 masks to those in need.

Get a booster — Omicron variants hit those vaccinated with two shots of the moderna/phizer vaccines (or one of the Johnson and Johnson) far harder than previous variants. To be better protected against a breakthrough case and drastically decrease the risk of transmitting to others, you need to get a booster shot. Indeed, if a second booster is available to you (for those over 50 or the immunocompromised) get one of those too.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

Firm up strict testing and exposure protocols with those close to you now — It’s still important to limit exposure as much as possible; a lot of people still get infected during the last weeks of the wave. Checking in with loved ones, close friends and roommates to check masking rules, quarantines and testing (if exposed) and other precautions remains important. It’s a really good idea to still limit contacts outside of a small group, and to do that everyone needs to have a clear idea of how to keep each other safe.

This also extends to workplaces, schools and other risky areas, where talking and organizing with those around you is incredibly important right now. Students and workers who’ve conducted walkouts or strikes for safer conditions offer an example of what to do.

The danger we’re currently in is drastically increased by the downright murderous level of inaction from local governments. A month ago Asheville city hall actually ended their mask requirement on public transit despite already-rising infection levels. Despite us already being in a worse situation than the delta wave neither city or county governments are even bothering to alert the public, let alone considering bringing back the mask mandate or other basic public safety measures.

As we’ve said in previous weeks, catastrophes don’t go away by ignoring them. The peak of a wave is still a time when it’s particularly important to stick to precautions even though it’s boring and frustrating. The virus doesn’t get tired.

Being infected by something this infectious isn’t something for moral judgement. Being pointedly reckless and putting others’ health and lives in danger after being repeatedly warned is.  The Blade will continue to do our best, updating these alerts as long as the wave continues. Hopefully, given what we’ve seen this week, that won’t be too much longer.

We will get through this. We keep us safe.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — May 19, 2022

Blade journalist Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe and a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week the covid wave in Asheville drastically worsened, with the amount of virus found in local wastewater substantially up over the past two weeks and the percentage of positive tests jumping alarmingly from 9.7 percent to 11.7 percent. The covid infection situation in Asheville is currently substantially worse than the height of the Delta wave last summer.

When the positivity rate exceeds 5 percent, spread of the virus in a community increases substantially. When it breaks 10 percent that indicates a widespread and dangerous threat of infection.

Confirmed cases also rose, from 621 last week to 717 this week. However those numbers do not indicate the scale of the spread or anything close to it, given reduced testing and more people relying on at-home tests (which don’t show up in official tallies).

However, the cases do reveal that this wave is hitting people 14-25 years of age particularly hard. Tragically, this is not surprising, as students and younger workers are often put in situations where they’re at particular risk of infection. These are also age groups are currently ineligible for the second booster.

There is one small sign this wave may be slowing: virus in local wastewater decreased, a bit, compared to the massive spike last week. But we won’t know if things are actually improving until next week. In the meantime, things remain particularly dangerous here.

Omicron waves, as we mention a lot in these alerts, tend to be more like a flash flood and less like a slow tide. They tend to increase sharply, creating immense danger for several weeks, before rapidly declining. That means that while they’re running rampant maintaining fairly strict precautions to protect each other is particularly important. This wave isn’t going up as rapidly as the winter one, but that’s not particularly surprising. Less social activity happening indoors, a significantly increased number of people having boosters and residual immunity from the previous wave are all tamping down spread. But, again, the risks are also very real.

Steps to take

Given that signs of infectiousness are still worsening, it’s still important to stick the stricter precautions in last week’s alert, which are repeated here. These are the result of experience, public health data and information from those with significant epidemiology experience. Individuals may not be able to adopt all of them all of the time due to the limits of their lives or environments they’re compelled to be in. But the more of these one can stick to, the safer you, those around you and the wider community will be.

Cancel plans and cut back on social events — The current rate of rapidly-increasing infectiousness means that some activities that could be done with a fair amount of safety a month ago simply can’t now. Cancel social plans that involve being around groups of people aside from close friends or connections whose precautions and risk levels you know, especially those that involve being indoors. Stop going into bars and restaurants where you’ll need to take masks off in-doors, especially those that don’t require vaccination (the vast majority do not).

Don’t go to concerts or other events that will involve being near groups of strangers for long periods of time. This is the time in a covid wave they inevitably turn into really ugly super-spreader events.

Shift everything you can to no-contact pick-up or delivery — Errands are a major risk when infections are this high, especially as most stores aren’t enforcing mask requirements. Anything you can do to avoid or minimize them for the next few weeks is key right now. Get groceries curbside, pick up vegetables from an open-air farmstand, take a delivery option if that’s available. If you stocked up supplies before this stage of the wave, now’s the time to use them.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. Those of us writing this struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other.

You must wear an N95 mask if you don’t want you or those around you to get infected. Rapid test when possibly exposed — Cloth masks simply do not cut it at this point in the pandemic, nor do surgical masks. You need to wear an N95 any time you come into contact with others outside those you live with or small groups who are taking careful precautions. Preferably, double-mask with a cloth mask over an N95.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test three days after and isolate as much as possible until then.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and n95 masks to those in need.

Get a booster — Omicron variants hit those vaccinated with two shots of the moderna/phizer vaccines (or one of the Johnson and Johnson) far harder than previous variants. To be better protected against a breakthrough case and drastically decrease the risk of transmitting to others, you need to get a booster shot. Indeed, if a second booster is available to you (for those over 50 or the immunocompromised) get one of those too.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

Firm up strict testing and exposure protocols with those close to you now — For the next few weeks it’s important to limit exposure as much as possible. Sitting down with loved ones, close friends and roommates now to firm up masking rules, quarantines and testing (if exposed) and other precautions is even more important now than in previous weeks. It’s a really good idea to limit contacts outside of a small group, and to do that everyone needs to have a clear idea of how to keep each other safe.

This also extends to workplaces, schools and other risky areas, where talking and organizing with those around you is incredibly important right now. Students and workers who’ve conducted walkouts or strikes for safer conditions offer an example of what to do.

The danger we’re currently in is drastically increased by the downright murderous level of inaction from local governments. Indeed three weeks ago Asheville city hall actually ended their mask requirement on public transit despite already-rising infection levels. Despite us already being in a worse situation than the delta wave neither city or county governments are even bothering to alert the public, let alone considering bringing back the mask mandate or other basic public safety measures.

As we said last week, catastrophes don’t go away by ignoring them. These weeks — potentially the height of the wave — are when it’s particularly important to stick to precautions even when it’s boring and frustrating. The virus doesn’t get tired. Being infected by something this infectious isn’t something for moral judgement. Being pointedly reckless and putting others’ health and lives in danger after being repeatedly warned is.  The Blade will continue to do our best, updating these alerts as long as the wave continues.

We will get through this. We keep us safe.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — May 12, 2022

Blade journalist Matilda Bliss contributed to this report

This is a COVID wave alert, detailing the current dangers of the pandemic situation in Asheville/Buncombe and a list of precautions to protect ourselves and the wider community.

This week the covid wave in Asheville drastically worsened, with the amount of virus found in local wastewater skyrocketing and the percentage of positive tests rising substantially from 8.3 percent to 9.7 percent.

When the positivity rate exceeds 5 percent, spread of the virus in a community increases substantially. When it reaches 10 percent that indicates a rapidly worsening pace of infections.

Confirmed cases also rose, from 449 last week to 621 this week. However those numbers do not indicate the scale of the spread, given reduced testing and more people relying on at-home tests that often don’t show up on official tallies.

However, the cases do reveal that this wave is hitting people 10-14 and 25-49 years of age particularly hard. Tragically, this is not surprising, as young students and workers are often put in situations where they’re at particular risk of infection. These are also age groups are currently ineligible for the second booster.

The result is that the current COVID wave in Asheville is going from bad to worse. And it’s going to get even worse than it is now. Asheville/Buncombe is already facing worse rates of infection than the height of the delta wave last summer, and those dangers are only going up.

Due to the sheer infectiousness of the omicron strains we’re currently facing, they tend to act more like a flash flood and less like a slow wave. They tend to rise rapidly, and for the weeks that they run amok the danger of covid infection is incredibly high, before falling quickly. This means it’s particularly important to reduce exposure in the coming weeks as much as possible. The storm is here, and it’s time to get to high ground.

Steps to take

Given that we’re entering the worst phase of that viral flood, it’s important to take much stricter precautions than before. What follows are the result of experience, public health data and information from those with significant epidemiology experience. Individuals may not be able to adopt all of them all of the time due to the limits of their lives or environments like work or school they’re compelled to be in. But the more of these one can stick to, the safer you, those around you and the wider community will be.

Cancel plans and cut back on social events. Now — The current rate of rapidly-increasing infectiousness means that some activities that could be done with a fair amount of safety a month ago simply can’t now. Cancel social plans that involve being around groups of people aside from close friends or connections whose precautions and risk levels you know. Stop going into bars and restaurants where you’ll need to take masks off in-doors, especially those that don’t require vaccination (the vast majority do not).

Don’t go to concerts or other events that will involve being near groups of strangers for long periods of time. This is the time in a covid wave they inevitably turn into really ugly super-spreader events.

Shift everything you can to no-contact pick-up or delivery — Errands are a major risk when infections are this high, especially as most stores aren’t enforcing mask requirements. Anything you can do to avoid or minimize them for the next few weeks is key right now. Get groceries curbside, pick up vegetables from an open-air farmstand, take a delivery option if that’s available. If you stocked up supplies before this stage of the wave, now’s the time to use them.

This can obviously be difficult for many of us in a city with this much poverty. Those of us writing this struggle with that too. Coordination can help, with several friends or community members going in on obtaining supplies and helping to distribute it to each other.

You must wear an n95 mask if you don’t want you or those around you to get infected. Rapid test when possibly exposed — Cloth masks simply do not cut it at this point in the pandemic, nor do surgical masks. You need to wear an n95 any time you come into contact with others outside those you live with or small groups who are taking careful precautions. Preferably, double-mask with a cloth mask over an n95.

If you are in a circumstance where you might have been exposed, take a rapid test three days after and isolate as much as possible until then.

The Firestorm cooperative is still offering free rapid tests and n95 masks to those in need.

Get a booster — Omicron variants hit those vaccinated with two shots of the moderna/phizer vaccines (or one of the Johnson and Johnson) far harder than previous variants. To be better protected against a breakthrough case and drastically decrease the risk of transmitting to others, you need to get a booster shot. Indeed, if a second booster is available to you (for those over 50 or the immunocompromised) get one of those too.

The Buncombe County Health Department is still offering free tests and vaccinations.

Firm up strict testing and exposure protocols with those close to you now — For the next few weeks it’s important to limit exposure as much as possible. Sitting down with loved ones, close friends and roommates now to firm up masking rules, quarantines and testing (if exposed) and other precautions is even more important now than in previous weeks. It’s a really good idea to limit contacts outside of a small group, and to do that everyone needs to have a clear idea of how to keep each other safe.

This also extends to workplaces, schools and other risky areas, where talking and organizing with those around you is incredibly important right now. Students and workers who’ve conducted walkouts or strikes for safer conditions offer an example of what to do.

The danger we’re currently in is drastically increased by the downright murderous level of inaction from local governments. Indeed two weeks ago Asheville city hall actually ended their mask requirement on public transit despite already-rising infection levels. Despite us already being in a worse situation than the delta wave neither city or county governments are even bothering to alert the public, let alone considering bringing back the mask mandate or other basic public safety measures.

Shockingly, catastrophes don’t go away by ignoring them. It is more important than ever to stay informed, stick to precautions even when it’s boring and frustrating (the virus doesn’t get tired), and stay in close, honest communication with each other about how to survive this. The Blade will continue to do our best, updating these alerts weekly as long as the wave continues.

We will get through this. We keep each other safe.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — May 5, 2022

What follows is a COVID-19 wave alert. Asheville and Buncombe County remain in an escalating covid wave. While data released yesterday from the N.C. Department of Health shows the rate of increase slowing, every measure of community covid infection continues to rise. We won’t know until next week if this wave is actually faltering or if this is just a moment of (relative) calm before the storm. So this weekly alert is focused on caution.

In the past week the amount of covid virus detected in local wastewater continued to rise, but not as rapidly as the previous week. A similar pattern showed up in test positivity, which rose from 7.6 to 8.3 percent.

Graphics from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services

Weekly confirmed cases likewise saw an increase (from 401 to 449) but still considerably slower than the near-doubling we saw the week before. That said, confirmed cases are less useful as a measurement than before, due both to decreased access to medical testing and to the increasing number of at-home rapid tests, which generally aren’t counted in the official tally.

Again, until we have more information we won’t know whether this a strange lull in a still-escalating wave or an actual decrease in danger. Nonetheless, rates do remain worryingly high. Virus in wastewater is now nearly as high as it was during the worst of last summer’s delta wave. In addition 8.3 percent test positivity is still dangerously high, well over the 5 percent threshold where community spread of covid starts to seriously increase.

Steps to take

Based on what this data tells us about community spread, here’s a list of precautions to take. These remain similar to last weeks given the fairly slow rise in rates, but they remain important given that the numbers still indicate a dangerous level of community covid spread.

These are based on the experience of the Blade co-op and many others in our community, including the recommendations of those with medical, public health and epidemiological experience. While conditions in this city and society often force people into dangerous situations or limit what they can do, take as many of the following as you and those around you can. Even a few of them will substantially reduce risk and help to protect yourself and others.

These precautions will be regularly updated as the severity of the wave changes.

* Stock up on supplies now. Seriously. —  Do this both for yourself and those in uninsured and low-income communities now faced with costs for testing and vaccines. Support local mutual aid, which will be more essential than ever in the weeks to come.

Omicron covid spikes tend to function more like a flash flood and less like a slow wave. They rise and fall more quickly than some previous strains, but for the weeks that they run rampant pose a very serious risk of infection even to those who are fully vaccinated and boosted. Any supplies you can stock up on now is a trip that can be avoided when conditions may get worse.

* Wear an N95 or KN95-level mask in indoor public spaces — Do this and encourage others to do the same. These offer significant protection, especially when an additional cloth mask is worn over the medical one.

Cloth masks by themselves bluntly do not cut it against omicron due to its sheer infectiousness. An N95 or KN95-level mask is necessary to protect yourself and others. If you don’t have access to one (or rapid tests) Firestorm is currently offering them for those in need.

* Avoid crowded indoor public spaces. Cancel riskier plans — Especially avoid activities like indoor dining or going to a bar without strict vaccination requirements that leave you unmasked for a substantial amount of time. Also avoid large public indoor gatherings (like concerts) where you’re likely to come into contact with those whose vaccination or covid status you don’t know. We’re still in enough of a wave that it’s probably good to cancel riskier plans that are 2-4 weeks out.

While vaccines offer very real protection, breakthrough cases can still have lasting health consequences, and seriously endanger others who are more vulnerable. Safety is rooted in collective action.

• Get your booster — Full vaccination simply doesn’t offer the same protection it did against earlier strains. As mentioned above, breakthrough cases can still have life-long health impacts. Boosted immune systems are more likely to be able to fight off omicron, and less likely to transmit it to others. Full, boosted vaccination is not merely a personal choice, but something that protects the wider community — especially the immunocompromised and other vulnerable populations — as well as oneself.

The Buncombe County Health Department continues to offer free covid tests and vaccinations.

* Firm up precautions with those you share space with — This is important to get a better idea of risks and precautions. Check in about your respective risks are, what’s unavoidable and what can be minimized or avoided. If you’re holding a gathering with friends be crystal clear on the precautions and situation. Assess supplies or other essentials for yourselves, neighbors or your community. Firm plans and make sure everyone’s committed to sticking with them for the remainder of this wave and that are clearly understood by all involved. Conversations now can save a lot of grief later, and given this wave has gone on for three weeks now it’s a good time to check in.

The Blade will continue to watch the covid situation closely and regularly update with more information status of this wave as it continues, especially as next week’s release of public health data should be particularly revealing. Instead of downplaying the reality, we’ll do our best to inform the public.

We will get through this. We keep us safe.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — April 28, 2022

What follows is a COVID-19 wave alert. Asheville and Buncombe County are in an escalating covid wave, as confirmed from data released yesterday from the N.C. Department of Health.

While always bad on the public health front in the past few months federal, state and local governments have abandoned almost all pandemic precautions and scaled back accurate reporting. Both state and local officials falsely declared we were in “a new phase” of the pandemic, when we were pretty clearly in a lull between waves.

Given that, it’s more important than ever to honestly inform the public. So the Blade is. We will update this post weekly until this wave subsides with more information and important precautions to take given the rate of community spread.

In the past week, the amount of covid virus detected in local wastewater has risen rapidly. The percentage of positive tests has also risen sharply, from 5.1 percent to 7.6 percent.

These are both clear signs of a COVID-19 wave. Positivity rates and wastewater spike first, then case numbers, then hospitalizations and deaths.

When test positivity breaks 5 percent it’s a sign that significant community transmission of the virus is starting to occur.

Given how incredibly transmissible the latest omicron variants are – and the nigh-complete lack of public health precautions – that’s likely to increase rapidly, meaning elevated danger for everyone in the area.

Indeed we’re starting to see a serious spike in covid cases, which jumped to 401 this past week, up from 243 the week before. Again, this is how waves go. It will get worse before it gets better.

Steps to take

Based on what this data tells us about community spread, here’s a list of precautions to take. These are similar to last weeks, but now with even more urgency, as we are now very clearly in the midst of another covid wave.

These are based on the experience of the Blade co-op and many others in our community, including the recommendations of those with medical, public health and epidemiological experience. While conditions in this city and society often force people into dangerous situations or limit what they can do, take as many of the following as you and those around you can. Even a few of them will substantially reduce risk and help to protect yourself and others.

These precautions will be regularly updated as the severity of the wave changes.

* Stock up on supplies now. Like right now —  Do this both for yourself and those in uninsured and low-income communities now faced with costs for testing and vaccines. Support local mutual aid, which will be more essential than ever in the weeks to come.

Omicron covid spikes function more like a flash flood and less like a slow wave. They rise and fall more quickly than some previous strains, but for the weeks that they run rampant pose a very serious risk of infection even to those who are fully vaccinated and boosted. Any supplies you can stock up on now is a trip that can be avoided when conditions are worse. This is even more essential now than last week, as rates are escalating and the risks of running these kind of errands will soon go up considerably.

* Wear an N95 or KN95-level mask in indoor public spaces — Do this and encourage others to do the same. These offer significant protection, especially when an additional cloth mask is worn over the medical one.

Cloth masks by themselves bluntly do not cut it against omicron due to its sheer infectiousness. An N95 or KN95-level mask is necessary to protect yourself and others. If you don’t have access to one (or rapid tests) Firestorm is currently offering them for those in need.

* Avoid crowded indoor public spaces. Start cancelling riskier plans — Especially avoid activities like indoor dining, or going to a bar without strict vaccination requirements, that leave you unmasked for a substantial amount of time. Also avoid large public indoor gatherings (like concerts) where you’re likely to come into contact with those whose vaccination or covid status you don’t know. It’s clear enough now that we’re in a wave some plans in the next 2-4 weeks may need to be cancelled if those post a particularly high risk.

While vaccines offer very real protection, breakthrough cases can still have lasting health consequences, and seriously endanger others who are more vulnerable. Safety is rooted in collective action.

• Get your booster — Full vaccination simply doesn’t offer the same protection it did against earlier strains. As mentioned above, breakthrough cases can still have life-long health impacts. Boosted immune systems are more likely to be able to fight off omicron, and less likely to transmit it to others. Full, boosted vaccination is not merely a personal choice, but something that protects the wider community — especially the immunocompromised and other vulnerable populations — as well as oneself.

The Buncombe County Health Department continues to offer free covid tests and vaccinations.

* Talk now with those you share space with and make firm plans about how to handle this— This is important to get a better idea of risks and precautions. Discuss what your respective risks are, what’s unavoidable and what can be minimized or avoided. If you’re holding a gathering with friends be crystal clear on the precautions and situation. Plan how to obtain supplies or other essentials for yourselves, neighbors or your community. Make firm plans for the next few weeks that are clearly understood by all involved. Then stick to them unless an emergency happens. A few conversations now can save a lot of grief later.

The Blade will continue to watch the covid situation closely and regularly update with more information status of this wave as it continues, and this week’s numbers confirmed that it will definitely continue. Instead of downplaying the reality, we’ll do our best to inform the public.

We will get through this. We keep us safe.

—

COVID WAVE ALERT — April 21, 2022

What follows is a COVID-19 wave alert. Asheville and Buncombe County are almost certainly at the start of a new covid wave, as confirmed from data released yesterday from the N.C. Department of Health.

While always bad on the public health front in the past few months federal, state and local governments have abandoned almost all pandemic precautions and scaled back accurate reporting. Both state and local officials falsely declared we were in “a new phase” of the pandemic, when we were pretty clearly in a lull between waves.

Given that, it’s more important than ever to honestly inform the public. So the Blade is. We will update this post weekly until this wave subsides with more information and important precautions to take given the rate of community spread.

In the past week, the amount of covid virus detected in local wastewater has risen rapidly. The percentage of positive tests has also risen sharply, from 3.3 percent to 5.1 percent.

 

These are both clear signs of an approaching COVID-19 wave. Positivity rates and wastewater spike first, then case numbers, then hospitalizations and deaths.

When test positivity breaks 5 percent it’s a sign that significant community transmission of the virus is starting to occur.

Given how incredibly transmissible the latest omicron variants are – and the nigh-complete lack of public health precautions – that’s likely to increase rapidly, meaning elevated danger for everyone in the area.

Steps to take

Based on the clear trend of this data, here’s a list of precautions to take. These are based on the experience of the Blade co-op and many others in our community, including the recommendations of those with medical, public health and epidemiological experience. While conditions in this city and society often force people into dangerous situations or limit what they can do, take as many of the following as you and those around you can. Even a few of them will substantially reduce risk and help to protect yourself and others.

These precautions will be regularly updated as the severity of the wave changes.

* Stock up on supplies now —  Do this both for yourself and those in uninsured and low-income communities now faced with costs for testing and vaccines. Support local mutual aid, which will be more essential than ever in the weeks to come.

Omicron covid spikes function more like a flash flood and less like a slow wave. They rise and fall more quickly than some previous strains, but for the 3-5 weeks that they run rampant pose a very serious risk of infection even to those who are fully vaccinated and boosted. Any supplies you can stock up on now is a trip that can be avoided when conditions are worse.

* Wear an N95 or KN95-level mask in indoor public spaces — Do this and encourage others to do the same. These offer significant protection, especially when an additional cloth mask is worn over the medical one.

Cloth masks by themselves bluntly do not cut it against omicron due to its sheer infectiousness. An N95 or KN95-level mask is necessary to protect yourself and others. If you don’t have access to one (or rapid tests) Firestorm is currently offering them for those in need.

* Avoid crowded indoor public spaces — Especially avoid activities like indoor dining, or going to a bar without strict vaccination requirements, that leave you unmasked for a substantial amount of time. Also avoid large public indoor gatherings (like concerts) where you’re likely to come into contact with those whose vaccination or covid status you don’t know.

While vaccines offer very real protection, breakthrough cases can still have lasting health consequences, and seriously endanger others who are more vulnerable. Safety is rooted in collective action.

• Get your booster — Full vaccination simply doesn’t offer the same protection it did against earlier strains. As mentioned above, breakthrough cases can still have life-long health impacts. Boosted immune systems are more likely to be able to fight off omicron, and less likely to transmit it to others. Full, boosted vaccination is not merely a personal choice, but something that protects the wider community — especially the immunocompromised and other vulnerable populations — as well as oneself.

* Talk now with those you share space with This is important to get a better idea of risks and precautions. Discuss what your respective risks are, what’s unavoidable and what can be minimized or avoided. If you’re holding a gathering with friends be crystal clear on the precautions and situation. Plan how to obtain supplies or other essentials for yourselves, neighbors or your community. A few conversations now can save a lot of grief later.

—

Ideally, this would be the point where local governments would be reinstating a mask mandate. But in previous waves officials have been far more focused on promoting tourism than protecting the public. It is incredibly unlikely this will be an exception.

The Blade will continue to watch the covid situation closely and regularly update with more information status of this wave as it continues. Instead of downplaying the reality, we’ll do our best to inform the public.

We will get through this. We keep us safe.

—

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