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 | | Daily reported coronavirus cases in the United States, seven-day average.The New York Times |
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Free at-home tests are here |
The Biden administration's website that allows people to order up to four free at-home coronavirus tests quietly went live today — a day in advance of its formal introduction — and demand already appears to be significant. |
There were more than 700,000 visitors on the home page of Covidtests.gov early Tuesday afternoon — more than 20 times as many as at the government site with the next highest traffic, the U.S. Postal Service's package-tracking page. |
I gave the website a test run this afternoon, and ordering the free tests was quite easy: Visit Covidtests.gov, click on "Order Free At-Home Tests" and then enter your name, address and email address (if you want to track the package) and click "Check Out Now." The process took under 30 seconds. Orders will usually be shipped in seven to 12 days, the website says. |
At a White House news conference today, the press secretary Jen Psaki said that the "official launch" was set for Wednesday morning but that the site had begun taking orders during what she described as a "beta testing phase." |
"We can't guarantee there won't be a bug or two," Ms. Psaki said, "but the best tech teams across the administration and the Postal Service are working hard to make this a success." |
In the Omicron era, decisions are complicated. While I can't tell you exactly what to do in every circumstance, today I'm sharing some thoughts on how two critics are approaching a common activity: dining out in restaurants. |
As the Omicron variant surges across the U.S., Covid cases are at a high. But in contrast to the spring of 2020, restaurants largely remain open (though with a growing number of exceptions). |
Our restaurant critics, Pete Wells and Tejal Rao, who are based in New York and Los Angeles, respectively, chatted about their comfort levels with dining indoors, and the differences — and similarities — they are seeing in their cities. Their conversation has been condensed. |
TEJAL RAO: I wanted to talk to you, in part, because I feel like I have no idea what's happening or what I should be doing! Everything changes day to day, and even my own risk assessment will change from day to day. |
PETE WELLS: Yeah, government guidance for restaurant critics has been scarce! |
PETE: So neither one of us is eating in restaurants this week, I hear. |
TEJAL: I'm trying to remember my last meal inside a dining room. I definitely remember the last reservation that I canceled, just before Christmas. I was really looking forward to it, but the place didn't have outdoor dining, and I was about to visit my parents. On Instagram, so many of the restaurants I follow were reporting infections. I thought: Well, this is it. I haven't been inside a restaurant since my story earlier this month about Los Angeles sushi; I'm sticking to takeout or outdoor dining. |
PETE: Well, I went out for dinner two Sundays ago. I was with a group of highly Covid-conscious people, so the deal was we had to eat outdoors and we all had to test right before the meal. We ate in one of those yurts, so we probably weren't going to pick up any germs from strangers at the next table. But on the other hand if any one of us had been sick, we would all walk out of there with a good stiff dose of the virus. Two days later, my sons came home from school with rapid tests and right away, one of them tests positive! It brought a halt to my dining out. I'm not sure how long I'll be at home, but I believe I need to wait five days after he's symptom free. |
TEJAL: I was talking to a chef on the phone the other day, and she told me that she isn't going to restaurants at all right now. But when I'm driving around, or picking up takeout, a lot of the patios and the dining rooms seem full. |
PETE: Are all the restaurants on reduced schedules there? Nobody here is staying open past 10 p.m., except Keith McNally. So they're not turning tables the way they were before. Which is just to say that it looks busier than it really is. |
TEJAL: Yeah, that's a good point. A lot of places are on shorter schedules here, too, with fewer staff working right now. |
PETE: One thing I've noticed is that the crowds are almost all young people now. Older diners, as a rule, don't seem as comfortable coming back. Although I have friends who are proud exceptions to that rule. |
You know, we have these strange jobs where, in the before times, we used to sit at close range talking, sometimes loudly, with a different set of people every night. And to do that now, the way we used to do it, would be sort of irresponsible. |
TEJAL: Sharing food from one plate! Passing a fork down the table! |
PETE: One of my last meals before the first shutdown was at a hot-pot place in Flushing. Although if the pot is really, really hot, you're probably killing off any germs at the table. (Not in the air, though!) |
TEJAL: My plan for now is to keep ordering takeout, and to stay away from indoor dining until the Omicron wave starts to really flatten out here, which should be in the next few weeks. At that point, I'll reconsider. |
TEJAL: Because the symptoms of this variant have been reported as milder (which doesn't mean mild, necessarily) I think a lot of people who were careful during the previous wave are feeling less careful now, but I'm terrified of losing my sense of smell again, among other things. |
PETE: No, we don't want you to get sick again! How is your nose, by the way? |
TEJAL: Oh, you know. Sensitive! Frightened! Exhausted! No, it's fine. Thank you. I got my smell back completely, but unfortunately it's a symptom you can experience again and again if you get sick, and there's no guarantee it'll come back again just because it came back once before. |
PETE: Nobody has any idea what's going to happen, right? |
TEJAL: I definitely don't. I will say, I don't feel as hopeless as I did before, as worried, because I've seen how restaurant people find new ways of doing things, or build new businesses in the margins, and I wish they didn't have to, but they do. |
PETE: I keep saying that restaurant people are like theater people — no matter what, the show goes on. As soon as I am fairly certain I'm not walking around with virus particles bursting out of my cranium, I'll start doing review meals again. |
Has the pandemic changed your relationship? |
For some, those early days of forced isolation gave us the clarity we needed to break up. For others, the pandemic made us realize what we cherish in life and helped us draw loved ones even closer. And for single people, the virus radically changed dating and hookup culture, and often made finding someone harder. It also gave some people the opportunity to meet, for example, in a Covid testing line. |
Many of us have love stories that have been inspired, or complicated, by the pandemic — and we'd love to hear yours. If you'd like to share, you can fill out this form here. We may use your story in an upcoming newsletter. |
What else we're following |
Before the pandemic, my fridge was covered with various photos of grandkids from school and whatever handmade seasonal cards we were lucky enough to get. Now we have a memorial of photos for the six friends we've lost. The first crushing blow was exactly a year ago, when we lost our best friend of 25 years, Matthew McCabe. He was the owner of Saratoga Guitar. Now Saratoga Springs is a very lonely place. — Barbara Ann Barnes, Saratoga Springs, N.Y. |
Let us know how you're dealing with the pandemic. Send us a response here, and we may feature it in an upcoming newsletter. |
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