Effective immediately, I’ll be
- Telecommuting (I’m lucky to have an office job and a responsible employer.)
- Picking up my daughter from school at the end of the school day instead of allowing her to participate in the after-school program and clubs.
- Using grocery delivery services or pre-ordering and/or picking up selected and bagged food near the store entrance.
- Using restaurant drive-thru windows, deliveries, and/or carry out pre-orders.
- Exercising at home instead of the gym.
- Taking my young child to parks that do not have playgrounds (picnics, walking trails, and bike rides only).
- Visiting with my elderly parents, siblings, and extended family via FaceTime only.
- Canceling my plane, hotel, and registration for the relatively small conference in Baltimore I was planning to attend in a couple of weeks.
- Canceling my reservations to an Orlando-area condo, reserved for our Disney trip during my daughter’s spring break in early April.
I believe that, at this point, it’s our civic duty to take drastic measures, to the extent possible, to avoid contracting and spreading this Cornavirus. (I understand that everybody doesn’t have the ability to telecommute and/or keep children out of after-school programs.)
The county where my daughter attends an overcrowded elementary school has just reported a case in a different county elementary school and announced that they are closing that school only for 14 days. The county’s website states that they’re following the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and the State of Georgia’s Department of Public Health. I imagine that my daughter’s school will close in the near future, I hope sooner rather than later. (The county has a plan in place for providing digital classroom content.)
Obviously, there are economic concerns. But they’re secondary. Right now, the objective is to limit the spread of this virus until we have access to an effective antiviral medicine and/or an effective vaccine.
I’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions.