State COVID Numbers Spike; Gas Prices Climbing; Chamber Seeks Goal of 120; Allergy Issues

State COVID Numbers Spike

The state of Oregon had another uptick yesterday in coronavirus cases as the OHA reported 422 new cases.  While this is still down from the 4 digit cases the state had been seeing in January it still show the potential for the virus to kick back up even with the state reaching 1 million doses administered.  Still Lane County continues to have minimal cases as 16 new cases were reported yesterday.  There were no new cases for the Florence area.  The state continues to widen the number of counties that can expand their vaccination schedule.  Coos County is the latest to get added to the list.  The state also continues to have sporadic outages on its reporting website and was experiencing trouble yesterday with limited access to data.

Gas Prices Climbing

Even though crude prices has stalled and even receded in recent days the price of gas continues to climb as we near the spring and summer driving season.  According to Marie Dodds with AAA gas prices for the state have climbed another 3 cents this week for an average of $3.16 for a gallon of regular.  In Florence the average price for regular gas has now climbed to $3.10 a gallon.  Dodds says that demand for gas dipped slightly this past week and the supply has grown but only by 400 thousand gallons.  She says the refineries are just slightly behind their pre-storm level.

Chamber Seeks Goal of 120

The Florence area Chamber of Commerce has now received 80 sponsorships for hanging flower baskets around the city.  Their goal was 120.  Baskets will hang around the city from May through October and you can contact the chamber if you would like to participate by sponsoring a basket.  Sponsorships can be individuals or businesses.

Allergy Issues

With the onset of seasonal allergies the CDC has put out a graph that indicates the differences between allergies and COVID-19.  It is not surprising to find that there are a lot of similarities between the two.  Some things they both share in common are cough, headaches, and tiredness.  Some of the things that are exclusive to allergies are sneezing, sore throat, itchy/watery eyes and runny or stuffy nose.  And things that are most common to COVID-19 symptoms in addition to the first three are loss of taste or smell, shortness of breath and body aches.  The CDC recommends that if you do have a multitude of symptoms in common, it might be best to get a test to make sure.