Little Changes

Here's some of the little things I've started doing in the past few weeks:

• Wipe down everything that can be wiped as soon as we enter the house: keys, phone, bag, etc. (and took the fabric lanyard off my keyring for easier cleaning)
• Shoes are left at the door
• Change clothes immediately
• Wash hands longer and more carefully, multiple times throughout the day
• Stopped wearing my wedding ring (so has my husband, at my suggestion) - it's just one more place for germs to be, and easy to miss cleaning under unless you take your rings on and off every time you wash your hands
• Stopped wearing nail polish (freshly polished nails are ok, but chipped polish can harbor germs)
• Trying to stop biting my nails, which is really hard for me without nail polish, but I'm doing ok so far - nail biting or putting your fingers in your face holes is one of the easiest ways to get infected
• Go around the house at least once a day and wipe down high-touch surfaces: doorknobs, light switches, remotes, phones, keyboards, etc., as well as counter tops, tables, and other surfaces.
• Doing one load of laundry a couple times a week, instead of a couple loads once a week
• Mail and packages are either discarded immediately, or left in a safe place in the basement for a couple days before opening (the virus can live on cardboard for up to 24 hours, and on hard surfaces for 2-3 days)

Today I made an actual run to the supermarket to get the things that weren't included in my pick-up order yesterday - it was my first time inside a building other than my house in a week! I went to a different store, right when it opened. People were lined up outside and started streaming in when the doors were unlocked. I brought a few disinfecting wipes and wiped down my entire cart. Everyone walked through the store nervously and tried to keep their distance. I got there at opening for the best chance of supplies, but there was still a lot out of stock or that I couldn't find - half the produce department was empty, as well as much of the cheese/dairy area. Many staple items like rice, pasta, cereal, etc. were limited to 1-2 per customer. I overheard a store employee telling a woman that their orders are based on forecasting from the previous year. As long as supply chains aren't too disrupted, it sounds like supplies should keep coming and stores will eventually replenish.

It sounds like more mobile testing sites have been popping up around the area. I know of two local to me connected with local healthcare systems, and I'm seeing articles about others in other areas. It sounds like they're just getting set up though, and aren't fully operational yet. The US has also closed its border with Canada. (I wonder what this means for little enclave towns that require border crossings to get to the other side of the street... Not that people should be going out, I guess.)

My county is now the first in our state to move to a "community spread model" in contact tracing and not updating where or how the virus was contracted. I don't know exactly what this means, but it seems important. I know they were previously tracing and following everyone who may have had close contact with an infected person, and this was usually the only way you could get tested. Maybe now there will be more widespread testing if they acknowledge it could be anywhere in the community?

Following the discussion in my previous post, people are becoming despondent - and it hasn't even been a week yet - just figuring the hospitals will implode and 2 million people will die because people won't be able to stay far enough apart for long enough. Most people are still expecting that this is all going to blow over in a month or two. We even finished our summer intern interviews today, and talked about plans to bring someone in starting in June.