What the orange alert means
On Time Out, JP Karwacki has a pretty good rundown of what the orange alert means, and it’s not pumpkin spice latte.
Public health are imploring us to follow the guidelines. People are not responding to tracing calls, so bicycle couriers are being sent to find them and make them get tested.
Religious leaders are calling it unfair that the tightened rules affect them too.
Kevin 10:07 on 2020-09-22 Permalink
Doctors block their phone number because they’re calling from personal cell phones.
So answer your damn phone no matter who is calling. If it’s a jerk, hang up.
Mark Côté 10:44 on 2020-09-22 Permalink
Wonder if they leave messages. There is so much phone spam lately; probably 10% of my calls are actually valid.
Joey 10:54 on 2020-09-22 Permalink
@Kevin the doctors make the phone calls?!?!?!
Kate 11:11 on 2020-09-22 Permalink
My experience is that medical people do not leave messages. They need to know they’re talking to the specific person concerned. I’ve occasionally emphasized in medical situations that I have a cell, not a landline, and nobody else answers it or gets the messages, but it doesn’t seem to matter.
Like their use of fax machines, it’s an area where the medical world has yet to catch up to our century. They still think they may be talking to a family answering machine with a tape.
Josh 11:49 on 2020-09-22 Permalink
Kate, I work in a field where I often must reach vulnerable/at-risk people (not medicine) to relay sensitive information and this is the practice we use, too. You’d be surprised at the number of people who don’t always have minutes/need messages left at a family member’s house/use their BF’s/GF’s phone etc, etc, etc.
I only leave detailed messages on voicemail accounts where I hear the person say their own name. Many people also use generic messages where you only hear the phone number. That’s no help at all to me.
jeather 12:31 on 2020-09-22 Permalink
When I had to bring my cat in to the vet, the vet called from a private number to discuss things after the consult. But then today I got a call from a private number which was someone offering me $100 to be in an audience for a youtube video. (I declined.)
I don’t know what the number is showing up as, since I do not actually go anywhere, and the few people I occasionally see would just phone me anyways to give me a head’s up. No one is answering that question.
I keep hearing mixed info about private outdoor gatherings under orange alert, though. Sometimes I see 6 is the limit for indoor, sometimes for all private.
Kevin 13:08 on 2020-09-22 Permalink
@Joey
Yes, some of the contact tracers are doctors.
Lots of people are also booking telephone doctor’s visits — and then not answering their phone because they don’t recognize the number or it’s blocked :/
@Kate
Family answering machines are extremely common. Almost everyone I know with children has a landline.
JaneyB 09:03 on 2020-09-23 Permalink
They’re not answering because phone spam is incessant right now. There is one number that has been calling me twice a day for 3 weeks now. I think it is because I picked up once a few weeks ago, then the system sensed ‘human presence’ and has not let up. It is a problem. They might be better to text something before they call.