The same to you. I hope everyone takes this seriously and stays safe. And at the same time, somehow try not to watch the news nonstop. Anyone who can work from home must. Do not go out unless it is extremely important to. Try to do things at home to keep your mind off of things. Not easy, but people will have to try.
My grandmother still wants to live alone for now so my aunt and another uncle who live nearby do the shopping for her. When she wants to, she'll live with one of her kids. So far she hasn't wanted to. She usually only wants to get a weeks worth of food in case something goes on sale. I told her she's going to have to forget sales. My aunt does most of the shopping and we've told her about Walmart and Kroger's pickup and delivery services. Whatever things cost, and whenever you can get them, is what we'll just have to do. There are people in my family in Tennessee that must take every opportunity to not get this, not just because of age, but underlying conditions. Staying home and not exposing yourself, and therefore eventually others in the family you interact with, is vital.
Here in Tampa we're going to start shopping online. Amazon for various things, including maybe some grocery items. For grocery stores locally, either have something delivered or pick it up curbside. Walmart (normal store and a Walmart Neighborhood store which is a grocery store only version) and Publix. Walmart has free pickup for orders over a certain amount. Publix does curbside pickup through a third party service, called Instacart. Both have delivery options you can pay for. We also usually shop at another grocery store, Aldi, that also seems to have Instacart. You will likely pay more for the things through Instacart. They have some manufacturer's digital coupons, but you are limited to whatever is there.
Going in a store isn't a risk that we're willing to take any longer. Washing your hands is great. Don't touch your face until you can wash your hands. But what about people breathing on you? Coughing and sneezing, sure, but what about walking down an aisle where someone just walked? I tried to avoid people when I was out, but sometimes it was not that many seconds after someone had just walked by.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/18/health/coronavirus-surfaces-study/index.html
"The coronavirus driving the current pandemic can live on plastic and stainless steel surfaces for up to three days, researchers say in a study published as a letter to the editor in the New England Journal of Medicine.
And it can linger in aerosols -- the suspension of tiny particles or droplets in the air -- for three hours, the study says."
Being in the air in general, like after someone walks by, is something I'm not going to wait for further research on.
If I get something delivered, or someone puts it into my trunk for me after I've already paid online, I can not come into direct contact with them, other than having to sanitize areas they touch, including letting non perishable items sit for awhile when they get home. Perishable items, like milk, I'll have to wash it good. Then wash my hands.
We signed up for Walmart's pharmacy online too because they have a drive through. (CVS and Walgreens also does here) My dad was going to Publix, but they don't have a drive through. My dad called up to Publix and even the person in the pharmacy got that. Who knows, maybe they will have to come up with other options there eventually.
My dad is retired and I work at home on my website, so we don't have to go out for work. And for the next 18 months to two years, we may well not except to pick things up. We're going to get gas tonight, being careful to not be around anyone and use a paper towel to touch things and then throw it away. And also use hand sanitizer when getting back in the car. We have to mail our taxes and we'll do that tonight after the post office is closed, going in to where we can drop off things when there is no one around.
If as a country we took this seriously and shut everything down except things that are absolutely essential, we could come much closer to China. Allegedly, China didn't report any new cases today as a result of community spread:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/19/asia/coronavirus-covid-19-update-china-intl-hnk/index.html
They had 34 that were travel related. I'm surprised they haven't completely shut their border except for trade. Sadly, we haven't take the steps we need to.
People are still focused on keeping more things open. I watched the governor of New York last night on TV and that seemed to be too much of his focus. You can't wait until the number of cases explodes dramatically, which it already has now. So many more people are already infected right now that don't know it. It may be a week, or even a bit longer, before some of those people start to feel the impact. Even if New York City shut down now except for the most vital services, there would still probably be hundreds of thousands of cases.
Virus tracking:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
https://infection2020.com/ - This was created by someone and I can't vouch for its accuracy. Verify anything you see on it with another source.
New York City is going to need to take some drastic action. It needs to happen now. Mayor just said they could run out of some essential medical supplies in two to three weeks. Saw that headline on CNN. Mayor de Blasio giving an update as I type this:
https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1240737793501880320
Live on Periscope: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1jMJgQrgYPWKL
There's a higher rate in the U.S. so far of younger people that have been hospitalized than I think they expected. I hope younger people start getting the picture.
Younger adults are large percentage of coronavirus hospitalizations in United States, according to new CDC data:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/19/younger-adults-are-large-percentage-coronavirus-hospitalizations-united-states-according-new-cdc-data/
"A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of U.S. cases from Feb. 12 to March 16 released Wednesday shows 38 percent of those sick enough to be hospitalized were younger than 55.
Earlier this week, French health ministry official Jerome Salomon said half of the 300 to 400 coronavirus patients treated in intensive care units in Paris were younger than 65, and, according to numbers presented at a seminar of intensive care specialists, half the ICU patients in the Netherlands were younger than 50."
Other news:
State Department warns US citizens not to travel abroad due to coronavirus pandemic:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/19/politics/state-department-travel-advisory/index.html
"The Level 4: Do Not Travel advisory 'advises U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel due to the global impact of COVID-19.'"
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/18/politics/contingency-planning-18-months-coronavirus/index.html
"A 100-page federal plan on how to tackle the coronavirus pandemic obtained by CNN shows the Trump administration is making contingency plans for a pandemic that could stretch up to '18 months or longer' and could include 'multiple waves of illness.'" |