It’s no fun when outdoor rec closes. But it helps keep COVID from spreading
It’s true that chances of catching the coronavirus are less if you’re outdoors.
But if you’re close to other people without masks, you can still get the highly contagious disease, fresh air and sunshine or not.
So officials in Oakdale, Hughson and Waterford are to be commended for recent tough decisions to close some popular outdoor recreation areas where unmasked people had been congregating.
Modesto, Turlock and others have taken note, according to a Modesto Bee report. If large groups continue gathering there, they ought to be humble enough to learn from something from these smaller neighbors.
No one has a corner on bad behavior in this pandemic. Unprotected crowds ignoring mask and social distancing guidelines have popped up all over Stanislaus County, it seems, and we’re paying a steep price.
Our positivity rates for COVID-19 tests have been three times the state average for weeks. ICU beds are strained. On July 8, Stanislaus had suffered 50 deaths; in less than one month, the number of victims has more than doubled to 126.
The pandemic has kept people out of work, forced some stores and restaurants out of business and will keep students home and learning remotely when the school year starts next week.
It’s encouraging to see restaurants willing to adjust with outdoor seating. Many have spent lots of money on tents, canopies and misters to help keep diners relatively cool. Hungry patrons seem appreciative.
But being outdoors, where the virus isn’t transmitted as readily, is no guarantee of safety.
Kudos to those acting like grownups
So it was good to see officials close down the Oakdale Community Park, and River Park and South Reinway Park in Waterford, when persistent crowds endangered each other. To keep youth teams from holding baseball games, Hughson in early July temporarily destroyed infields by disking basepaths at LeBright and Rolland Starn Parks.
Stanislaus County deserves credit as well for getting word out that only county residents can use Woodward and Modesto reservoirs, which have been overrun by crowds composed mostly of people from elsewhere. Both are extremely popular camping and day-use destinations in hot summer months.
The closure decisions surely are unpopular with many who either think the coronavirus is a hoax (it isn’t) or are unwilling to comply with face-covering and social distancing guidelines. This stubborn selfishness is the principal reason behind our horrendous COVID-19 numbers.
It’s why we continue to see unprotected outdoor basketball games at Modesto parks such as Dry Creek and Ustach, for instance, as well as at least one baseball game at Downey High. Week after week, eyewitness accounts and complaints of noncompliance and continue rolling in, even as Stanislaus coronavirus cases and deaths climb skyward.
There is no reason to believe that defiance is any worse in Oakdale, Hughson and Waterford than elsewhere. But officials there saw what was happening, realized the potential for mega-spread and shut it down. That needs to happen more — in Modesto and elsewhere — to help straighten out our depressingly crooked COVID numbers.