COVID-19 Updates: August 6, 2020
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NC Gov. Roy Cooper extends Phase Two of coronavirus restrictions into September |
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North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced Wednesday that Phase Two of the state’s reopening plan will be extended until at least Sept. 11, keeping coronavirus restrictions in place through the Labor Day weekend.
Cooper said health experts need that additional five weeks to look at trends as schools — universities and K-12 — reopen over the next few weeks.
His Wednesday announcement comes as Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state’s Department of Heath and Human Services, said the four major metrics the state uses to analyze the virus’ spread show stabilization. She said the number of cases is still too high and she wants to maintain that stability.
“We know what works, we’re going to continue to stick with it,” Cohen told reporters at a news briefing Wednesday. “I know it takes a lot of vigilance,” she said, to follow wearing a mask, keeping social distancing and washing hands.
“As I said last week,” Cooper said during the press conference, “stable is good, but decreasing is better. And while we are seeing stabilization of our numbers, that doesn’t mean we can let up. You only have to look at hospitals in other states that have been overwhelmed when reopening occurred too fast.”
This is the third time Cooper has kept restrictions that limit the size of gatherings indoors and outdoors in retail stores, restaurants and other businesses. The restrictions also keep bars, gyms, entertainment venues and some other establishments closed in the pandemic.
The state has been in Phase Two of COVID-19 restrictions on business and leisure activity since May 22. Restaurant dining rooms are allowed to have 50% occupancy, as are personal care businesses such as barbershops, salons and tattoo parlors.
Cooper did say a move to Phase Three isn’t dependent upon an effective vaccine being available.
“We would hope that we could move along in our phases, even before a vaccine is in effect,” Cooper said.
Students prepare to begin school
Cooper’s decision comes as students in public schools prepare to begin school later this month, many with only virtual classes.
“The opening of schools and colleges is an important one — education must go on, even in a pandemic,” Cooper said. “In-person learning has benefits. But it means challenges for our state, especially as our higher education campuses draw students from around the country and the world.
“With the opening of schools, people will move around more and so will the virus. Other states that lifted restrictions quickly have had to go backward as their hospital capacity ran dangerously low and their cases jumped higher. We won’t make that mistake in North Carolina.”
Cooper has delayed further loosening restrictions, pointing to metrics such as raising coronavirus case rates and increased COVID-19 hospitalizations.
Reported average daily case growth has declined in the last week. But Cooper last week said the rate was still too high when he mandated a statewide ban on alcohol sales after 11 p.m. at restaurants and other businesses with on-site consumption in an effort to cut the growth in cases.
This week, the state DHHS reported more than 2,000 COVID-19 deaths in the state since the pandemic reached North Carolina in early March.
“Every single one of them represents a family in mourning and a community grieving their loss,” Cooper said Wednesday. “They are more than numbers on a chart – they are North Carolinians who are missed dearly.”
As Cohen showed during Wednesday’s news conference, the state’s trends in people going to emergency departments with coronavirus-like symptoms, lab-confirmed cases, percent of tests coming up positive and hospitalizations have stabilized.
While that’s an improvement over the increases in those areas seen since Memorial Day, a decrease is needed.
“Our cases are still too high,” Cohen said. “It is still straining our resources whether they be testing resources, hospitalizations or contact tracing. We want to see a low level of new cases spreading across the state here.”
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August Food Distribution Sites |
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When I go out in public, what type of face mask should I wear?
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The CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings, commonly referred to as masks, in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, such as grocery stores, pharmacies, and gas stations. Wearing face coverings in public is required in North Carolina. - Cloth face coverings may slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.
- Cloth face coverings can be made from household items.
- COVID-19 can be spread by people who do not have symptoms and do not know that they are infected. That’s why it’s important for everyone to practice social distancing (staying at least 6 feet away from other people) and wear cloth face coverings in public settings. Cloth face coverings provide an extra layer to help prevent the respiratory droplets from traveling in the air and onto other people.
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Face Covering Requirement in Orange County
Any person age 11 or older must wear a face covering at all times while in public settings.
Orange County has mandated the use of face coverings for most:
- Customers, employees and other users of restaurants, grocery and retail stores while they are indoors.
- Occupants of public transportation vehicles.
- People in any other indoor or any outdoor situation where they cannot maintain a 6-foot physical distance from others.
A face covering is not required:- For those who can’t wear a face covering due to a medical or behavioral condition.
- For children under 11 years old.
- For restaurant customers while they are dining.
- In private offices.
- When complying with directions of law enforcement officers.
- In settings where it is not practical or feasible to wear a face covering when obtaining or rendering goods or services.
- While with family or household members.
What is a face covering?A face covering includes anything that covers your nose and mouth, such as a mask, scarf or bandana. Make sure your cloth face covering: - Fits snugly but comfortably against the side of the face
- Completely covers the nose and mouth
Do I need to practice social distancing if I wear a cloth face covering?
Yes. Wearing a face covering does not take the place of other public health precautions like maintaining six feet of physical distance between yourself and others, washing your hands (or using hand sanitizer), and avoiding touching your face.
For more information, please visit the Orange County Health Department webpage. |
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‘No Tea, No Shade’ Addressing LGBTQ and Pop Cultures’ infatuation with Black English
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Courtney Cureton, Women's RepublicOur society increased the need to communicate virtually during the past few months. Of this, a lot of communication was through social media. For many young queer folx like me, Twitter and Tik Tok are great distractions in unprecedented times. As I consumed more social media, I noticed the very language used online in many different community forums was similar across my many intersections. A lot of this seemed to originate from African American Vernacular English, Black Culture, and Black Trans Queer Folx telephoned through to modern pop culture. According to the 2018 Huffington Post, some of 2018’s hottest slang words on social accounts included “Go off” “Salty” and “Secure the Bag”. This underappreciated language is much larger than ‘slang’. It is a dialect that contains evolved experiences of Black Americans. “Many of the words and phrases that blew up on social media this year come from Black Twitter, American Black culture, and African-American Vernacular English (AAVE)”; yet those who use these terms may be unaware of and ignorant to the AAVE and the way they’re using it. People tweet out words like “Finna” “Lit” “I’m Weak” “I’m Dead” across social media outlets as colloquial terms. They misinterpret the dialect as slang, instead of a vast system of verbalized and unified resistance. |
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What is AAVE?
African American Vernacular English is both a dialect and a language. The background of AAVE is controversial. Due to the vast expansion of the African Diaspora, some believe AAVE comes from creole backgrounds; In contrast, others believe the dialect evolved in the southern plantations, from plantation owners’ American English.
While the origin of AAVE remains up for debate, it is used quite frequently throughout Black communities using native tongue per location. This powerful dialect stems from Black enslaved ancestors and their struggles through American oppression; it is a nuanced adaptation to maintaining a unified culture separate from the Euro American manuscript.
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Black English is a fantastic report of oral histories and lived Black experiences. Unfortunately, for those outside those parameters, it may never make sense and may lead to misinterpretations, in many cases, misappropriations.
When society appreciates Black English as an independent language distinct from slang terms or miseducated speech, it can be beautifully appreciated and valued. When overused and misused beyond repair, we blur the line between respectful appreciation and blissed-out ignorance. |
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Addressing the Hard Truth: Cultural Appropriation
While the subculture of Black and queer intersecting spaces have blurred the understanding of who is able to use this specific intersectional dialect; at the end of the day, phrases are taken out of context and deemed ‘ghetto’ in black mouths, but hilarious or ‘iconic’ in White or non-POC queer mouths.
There is no free pass to abuse a powerful dialect.
Therefore, misappropriation of the AAVE dialect is cultural misuse and performative allyship for the uneducated.
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Misappropriations of AAVE in Queer Circles
In addition to AAVE’s usage in pop culture, it is commonly used by many fold in queer communities, oftentimes without proper accreditation to a subculture within the LGBTQ+ community.
AAVE and other attributed Black ‘slang’ hold a long history in contemporary queer culture. Ballrooms, house culture, and predominantly QTPOC communities hold spaces that protect Black + queer intersections. They are landmark areas for the introduction of AAVE into the queer culture. Black queer folx brought their culture and language to safe spaces for all, which in turn sparked interest in non-Black outlets and carried on the dialect to other communities without proper accreditation to the subculture that created it.
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Popular queer media such as the 1991 underground ballroom documentary ‘Paris is Burning’ and current TV series Pose on FX highlight some of the most influential intersectional pieces of AAVE in queer spaces. Popular phrases used in queer culture such as “Read” or “Reading”, let’s have a “Kiki”, “Throwing Shade” and others are illustrated in these two works, and seen throughout the contemporary queer social circles today.
The popular term “Yaas Queen” stems from the 1980’s ballroom subculture. Through misappropriation, people quickly introduced this term – and subsequently the dialect- to the mainstream culture and associated it with musical artist Lady Gaga and White gay culture. This is a familiar process that often goes over the heads of many queer folx. The same could be said with Madonna and her interpretation of “Vogue”.
‘Voguing‘ a popular dance created in the 1980s Underground Ballroom culture. It has specific ties to the BTQPOC intersections. Unfortunately, through misappropriation and misinterpretations, many associate the style of dance to Madonna and mainstream 80’s culture.
AAVE does have a special place in queer culture. It will always have a special place in queer culture; but first, we need to recognize and address it as a Black historical nuanced resistance language and not just a pop culture slang machine. |
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Many terms and colloquialisms that are universally used are specific to the Black language but are used out of context and misappropriated. However, if approached thoughtfully, AAVE can be used to bridge better communication between Black and queer intersections and lead to an increased appreciation for Black culture and its uniqueness in mainstream culture.
The disconnect between White and Black LGBTQ+ communities has led to many misappropriations and disconnect from the original framework. Through increased communication between these groups, racial unity within queer communities will overpower the current disconnect. |
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How can we appreciate AAVE?
We must first work within our own intersections to create solidarity and understanding. Dismantling our vocabulary and the connotations behind frequently used terms is crucial work for BQTPOC allies.
By analyzing how culture, language, and oppressive frameworks intersect to discredit POC communities, we expand our complex knowledge by supporting and appreciating other cultures.
In the same way that queer privilege does not absolve racial privilege, crediting the subculture communities who influenced queer culture goes past performative allyship by focusing on the power of intersectionality.
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Continue to uplift those Black, Queer, Trans People of Color. Black Trans women like the amazing Marsha P. Johnson, Laverne Cox, and Poses’ Elektra as well as many others, are just a FEW examples of the amazing people in a larger subculture that to this day, seldom gets the recognition they so deserve.
Send gratitude, appreciation, and thanks to Underground Ballroom culture, Houses, and the safe spaces that saw Black English evolve into a very sacred part of the queer community. This is necessary for appreciating AAVE, Black culture, and Queer culture.
Continue these conversations. Don’t stop fighting. Educate yourself and others on the histories of your most-used colloquial terms, and don’t be afraid to rethink the need to use Black English in your own conversations. |
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North Carolina COVID-19 Cases
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) reports 131,267 COVID-19 cases, 2,092 deaths, and 1,147 hospitalizations, as of August 6, 2020. For more information regarding live updates (NCDHHS updates the site every day at noon), please visit the NCDHHS website.
Orange County Health Department also has a COVID-19 dashboard webpage, with information on COVID-19 data in the county. The dashboard will be updated every Tuesday and Thursday.
There are currently 1,316 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Orange County, and 45 deaths.
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COVID-19 Community Resources
For more information on COVID-19 community resources in the county, please visit our webpage. Resources on specific topic areas, such as food access, education, housing, and others, are all accessible on our website, or at the links below.
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