social distancing Archives

The ban mainly applies to places like theaters, restaurants, and gyms, and law enforcement personnel have the power to enforce it.

The state issued an order Tuesday that allows law enforcement to enforce a ban that prohibits more than 10 patrons in places such as restaurants, fitness centers, and theaters.

Gov. Ralph Northam and State Health Commissioner Norman Oliver issued a public health emergency order to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus, or COVID-19.

“I hope that everyone will have the common sense to stay home tonight and in the days ahead,” Northam said. “This order will ensure that state and local officials have the tools they need to keep people safe.”

All Virginians should increase social distancing, avoiding gatherings of more than 10 people, the state said. This follows federal guidelines announced Monday.

Oliver announced at Tuesday’s press conference that two people in Virginia have died from the disease and 67 people are confirmed to have it, including one patient who is currently in a long-term care facility — which he said was “very concerning.” Oliver said about 48 tests are currently pending. The first confirmed Virginia case was announced on March 7.

According to the Virginia Department of Health, the potential public health threat posed by COVID-19 is high, but the individual risk is dependent upon exposure. People over the age of 65 and those with underlying health conditions were urged to self-quarantine due to elevated vulnerability to the disease.

Oliver said that there are currently 300 to 400 COVID-19 testing kits in the commonwealth, with more on order.

“I don’t want you to think that you are just getting a cold,” Oliver said. “This is a serious, serious pandemic and social distancing is, therefore, something we should do and take seriously, for ourselves, for our loved ones, and for our community.”

Oliver also said that there are federal plans to launch automated test sites and drive-through testing centers nationwide in the areas that have been hit the hardest by the disease.

Sentara Healthcare has opened several drive-through testing centers in Hampton Roads for those who are at the highest risk for the disease.

Northam has also rolled out new measures to support workers across the state that are being affected by closures due to the coronavirus, including eliminating the wait for unemployment benefits and increasing eligibility for unemployment status.

*Gov. Ralph Northam. Screenshot from press conference held Tuesday morning, via VCU-CNS.*

Workers may be able to qualify for unemployment if their employer slows or ceases operations due to the disease, if they have been issued a notice to self-quarantine by a medical or public health official but are not receiving sick pay or medical leave, or if they are not receiving paid medical leave while staying home to take care of sick family members. The one-week unpaid waiting period was waived for benefits, and unemployment funds are available through the Virginia Employment Commission, Northam said.

The state ordered all 75 offices of the Department of Motor Vehicles to close, in addition to urging the Supreme Court of Virginia to close all courts until April 6 for non-emergency or non-essential court proceedings. Online services are still available, the governor said, and 60-day extensions have been granted for expired licenses and registrations.

The State Corporation Commission also issued an order to suspend utility service disconnections for the next 60 days in order to provide relief for those financially impacted by COVID-19.

“Together we will get through this and we will be a better Virginia,” Northam said. “Every single one of us has a personal responsibility in this situation, every one of us has a role in being part of the solution.”

The Virginia Department of Health currently has a 24-hour Coronavirus information hotline that can be reached at 877-ASK-VDH3 or 877-275-8343 for questions about the disease.

Written by Maia Stanley, Capital News Service. Top Photo: CNS photo by Lia Tabackman.

In this month’s Amazon Trail, Lee Lynch contends with her advancing age and tries to figure out gardening in the middle of a coronavirus outbreak that reminds her how vulnerable so many of us are.

When I asked for advice about growing potatoes, our friend Mary wrote, “Here is what Mick does: blood meal, green sand, or wood ash, bone meal, a handful of each above item for each potato you plant, mix in wheel barrel with dirt and some peat moss, and steer poop. Love M&M.”

Or, said Mick, who grows blue and other exotic potatoes, we can just buy an organic fertilizer. Whew. I found the prospect of mixing manure with soil a bit unappetizing. Which is why, last year, when a neighbor gave us her handmade wooden raised bed, I put off loading it at all and used it only as a support for plastic planters and grow bags. Not exactly best practice.

But it was practice, and this year I had plans to search out however many cubic units I needed of that organic fertilizer stuff and get serious. I learned the stores we have around here don’t stock anything of the sort practically until spring. We dutifully saved egg cartons to make our own potato starts.

I waited a little too long. Just as stores began stacking big bags of soil in their parking lots, going to the store became dangerous. One day I spoke with my sweetheart about taking the precaution of growing some food of our own in case of extended quarantines, or in case the stores and farmers’ markets close, or the farmers, goddess forbid, fall victim to the pandemic. The next day my sweetheart went on her last shopping expedition until it’s once again “safe” out there.

She insisted on going to the stores herself because of my age. As much as I wanted to at least share the risks associated with moving among large numbers of people, my sweetheart wouldn’t hear of it because I’m the elder. She is too good to me.

The CDC has classified me, and almost everyone I know, as older adults with increased vulnerability to COVID19 and its ilk. Infectious disease experts define “older adults” as anyone age 60 and up. Today’s reports show the mortality rate for infected people in this age group in China is at 15 percent, compared to 3.4 percent in younger sufferers.

This does not make me want to take my temperature every five minutes, but I do yearn for an old-fashioned thermometer — the kind without a battery that goes kaput when it’s most needed. Also, I’ve been a reliable hand washer for a long time and I’m perfectly willing to become temporarily OCD about it.

It’s the old and vulnerable part that gets to me. Nothing wrong with either state — I just don’t feel I’m there yet. So not only is the Evil Virus a physical threat, it’s messing with my self-image. I wasn’t planning on thinking of myself as old until, say, age eighty-five. Maybe ninety. But the experts don’t agree.

Mostly, I do not want the misery of any kind of flu for my sweetheart, my family, myself, friends, or any human on the planet. Last time I had a flu was in December 1977. It hung on into January. There were three of us living in a townhouse with two bathrooms and six cats. For about two weeks, I primarily got out of bed only to take care of the cats. And my throat was so painful I never smoked again, which was the good news.

Today I had to make a decision: go to my balance class at the 60+ Activity Center or play it safe. In the nick of time, a local online blog mentioned that the Center was now closed. Tomorrow I’m scheduled to attend a community breakfast. Do I trust that I’m not infected and sickening others by attending? How do any of us know the neighborhood cooks are robustly healthy? As someone said today, we’d have to eat six feet from one another.

The expression “we live in dangerous times” just became more meaningful. The choices I make today may impact a whole lot of other people tomorrow, and on many levels. Their decisions may do the same for me. I’m no prepper, but Mick’s potatoes will come in very handy for him and for Mary if those two big words, “national emergency,” haven’t come too late.

For me, it’s back to grow bags and planters propped on the raised bed with some houseplant fertilizer and high hopes. Be well.