The current coronavirus pandemic is altering peoples way of life worldwide. As the virus pandemic is spreading at rapid pace in US, federal, state & local government authorities are taking extreme measures to slow down the spread of coronavirus.
President Trump has declared national emergency including many state governors. As of March 15, the CDC has issued guidance recommending community organizers (whether groups or individuals) cancel or postpone in-person events that consist of 50 people or more throughout the United States for the next 8 weeks.
Government authorities and business leaders are encouraging their non-essential staff to work from homes, public schools are closing, restaurants/bars are ordered to close for, major events are being cancelled, etc in an effort to create social distancing.
Social Distancing
Recently two measures are being talked about much: social distancing & flattening the curve. Social distancing ‘keep people from congregating in large crowds thus help slow down the coronavirus outbreak‘. How long this social distancing last? Nobody seems to know the answer at this time. It may last eight weeks, until July-August or rest of the year, according the Washington Post report.
Flattening The Curve
In a recent NPR news reporting, reporter Maria Codoy explains the ‘potential life-saving benefits’ from social distancing to slow down the virus spread curve (below).
The idea is to increase social distancing in order to slow the spread of the virus, so that you don’t get a huge spike in the number of people getting sick all at once. If that were to happen, there wouldn’t be enough hospital beds or mechanical ventilators for everyone who needs them, and the U.S. hospital system would be overwhelmed.
From the NPR News
Latest COVID19 Tally
According to Johns Hopkins database (as of March 17 morning) there are 6,496 confirmed covid19 infection with 55 deaths. Globally the covid19 virus has infected 183,425 with 7,167 deaths.The MDH latest tally (as of March 17), the confirmed case in Minnesota is 60 (out of 2336 tested) from 13 counties.