Is anyone here in one of the states affected by coronavirus shutdowns?

I live in San Mateo County of CA and home from non-essential work during the shelter in place from March 17th - April. This is how I will volunteer since I cannot go into San Francisco to my regular shifts besides doing virtual Mass during Lent.

The Covid-19 virus is in all 50 states, and in Guam. I heard this morning.
Source unknown.

Stay home.

We are up to 280 cases and 7 deaths now. I am sad for everyone everywhere 😞. Many of our businesses that rely on tourism are suffering horribly. It’s not just our smaller boutique hotels but now the larger hotels too are taking a hit.

One really interesting turn of events is how the virus is effecting our funeral homes. Social distancing and limitations on the number of people attending funerals. Death is a big business here. We respect our dead here, from funerals to our unique and beautiful cemeteries.

No second line jazz funerals either! Wow...big cultural changes in our unique city. These are unique times though that requires focusing on controlling this virus.

Man, I hope people listen to the advice. If they don’t our local police have announced they will give out citations. Glad our police officers are staying on top of enforcing the regulations that are for our safety.

I had a Dr apt today and hubs drove me, While I was there he topped off my truck ( I still have to go to work ) and hit the liquor store ( mom worried there is going to be a shortage of her wine.. LOL,, they have plenty of booze and are getting overflow from the bar and restaurant closings) and the grocery store. He was able to get eggs, everything was stocked but TP and we have plenty of that, it was fresh stuff and coffee creamer we needed. Our gas prices are dropping, contrary to what the news is saying about it going up.. 1.99 a gal. Then we went to the pharmacy to get mom and I scripts filled,, they had what we need, and the extra boxes will be there Fri so hubs will pick them up. Then the back to cash a check for mom,, for the first ever they asked if my POA was on file with them,, yep, and my name is on all the accounts also. They have to be careful with scammers now,,,

As if being quarantined with my DH (who normally travels 20 days of the month) I not only have him home, working, to contend with, but N Utah got hit with a 5.7 earthquake this am. Literally rumbled our house. We are 20 miles from the epicenter, but I am already a little anxious and now this, plus all the 'little' aftershocks.

Luckily we're stocked for food and I'm not worried. Everyone is looking out for everyone else!

The announcement was made yesterday that our schools will close. Kids are on Spring Break this Week. That will extend one week while educators get ready for remote education. Online and by packet.

Sooo, starting in about 10 days I will have grandkids 6yrs and 18 months. 😳 Not that big of a deal, they spend a lot of time with me anyway. But with situation, how long?

I remembered a country slaughter house that I used to go to with my Dad. Googled. They are still in business! Buzzed over there yesterday before the school announcement, I just felt it was coming, and stocked up on meat. I keep things in my big freezer but not what I will probably need for this situation.

Our store shelves are empty.

I looked around the internet and I think you can freeze milk. If anyone has frozen milk successfully let me know. I want to freeze heavy cream actually and hate to waste a pint for a science experiment.

My adult son (31) is very ill. Awful fatigue for the last month. He started running fever and went to Walk In Yesterday morning. The Dx was Strep Throat. I don’t know, just seems more serious to me. Monitoring him for respiratory symptoms.

Son’s wife is a banker. She had a customer in her office this week. Guy let it be known that he was around shaking hands, Bro hugging some buddy 4 days prior and the Buddy has since become ill and tested positive. This customer was supposed to be in self quarantine!!! But, was out opening a checking account and who knows what else in town. So there’s that...

I live in a rural area so that’s a plus.
I prefer being here. I only go to town when needed so on a normal basis, I am usually stocked up for 2-3 weeks.

Stay Safe Everyone.

My husband entered a SNF on Saturday after a fall. Dr's put him there for Physical Therapy. On Sunday I went to visit and found the facility was under quarantine. I can drop off things for him at the front desk and they will take them to him. He has his phone. I'm actually really glad that he is safe there. The virus is starting to make an appearance in our city and I've been terribly afraid that I would bring it home, in spite of all the precautions I take. He has so many medical issues that it would go badly for him if he caught it. I have to work and our company has it's first person on quarantine as of yesterday. (His roommate tested positive.) Company policy is that if you've been exposed then you don't come to work for 2 weeks.

Same here. Recent community would not let me visit due to corona. Moved sis this week to new community-will not let me visit. Thought we had done the right thing by sis-desperate to get her out of that place. Recent community was not giving good care-I have posted about throughout this forum.

New community-nurse called me after sis had been bawling for 4 hours. I could hear sis crying in the background of the call with the nurse. Yes she cried before-recent people were not doing much to redirect etc at recent community-they would take sis to her room and shut the door. New community I already do not have a good feeling about them not giving some extra TLC to new person who is clearly distressed from the move and now can not see me at all. I called back a few times to see how things are going with sis-same nurse did not recall who I was talking about....(person with the loud crying) .Sis does have a phone in her room-i tried calling not sure it is ringing in her room....Each time we have made a move sis goes down hill by a big chunk-I am really afraid of what I am going to see when I finally get to see my sister. I am allowed to send cards and check in with the nursing it will have to do for now.

Sci-fi novel or movie? Twilight Zone? Who else feels this way? Shell, I see that you do. I certainly do!

Summit County has closed everything, including hotels. Very busy time of year there, normally. All hotel guests have been told to pack your bags, get ready to go 😉, go home.😮

Now it’s 196 cases here and 4 deaths. It’s expected to rise because of our recent Mardi Gras celebrations. Crap! I am bummed.

So many of our events are also attended by tourists, including many from Europe and Asia.

So, they are saying the timing of our Mardi Gras celebrations was right for our city to be highly infected with the virus due to the large crowds at the parades and throughout the city at that time.

More and more closures daily to help stop the spread of this virus. The people here are starting to feel the impact. Some are saying they don’t know how they will survive. A few restaurants are giving free food to those in need.

I have notice here the same. Schools close, casinos, and restaurants. We do have little stands in school's parking lots for kids to get free lunches so that is nice. But people have just gone crazy around here! Not a lot of traffic. Plus, all our government business has closed their doors to the public. We now have to pay bills like the taxes and water bills in a drop box. Even our city hall meeting our closed to the public, but they are letting people join by phone and other forms of Technology.

I don't know what others think but this all just seems unreal! Like we are all in a weird movie!

Just read that all kansas k-12 schools are closed for the rest of the year. I imagine that will become the norm.

As of midnight already, Nevada is pretty much closed for business. No casinos, restaurants, or any non-essential business is opened or will be opened for a while.
Pharmacy, gas, food, hardware stores allowed to be open. Schools as far as I know are closed but still serving breakfast and lunches. don't know if this is all schools or not. Don't know about SNF or other such facilities. Food banks are still operating.
Most food type deliveries are still operating. Had a Drs appointment today. Everyone was wearing masks except the Dr. No one in waiting room Only a few patients waiting in the hall.
Cleared my throat in a convenient store and the clerk nearly went into a panic. Sanitized hands after taking my money. Then reached into drawer to make change.Would not place money into my hands but balanced everything on the paper and gingerly pointed it in my direction.
Most shopping centers and strip malls were deserted. Traffic was slightly less today.
Construction work is allowed to continue as the discretion of the contractor.
Mail delivery will continue so far, although it is not being sprayed.

Be safe and wash frequently.

Worried, thanks for the info.    I have some thoughts on what an active 8 year old might do, so let me get back to you.

GA they are 8 and 12. So no nap times LOL! Would be nice though! My 12 year old is fine. It’s the 8 year old driving me insane. As soon as the news broke about the shelter-in-place going in to effect at midnight, I rushed out to the grocery store because I knew everyone is about to panic. Had no choice but to bring the 8 year old and lets just say.....peppermint Smirnoff is on sale and I seriously contemplated buying 2 bottles to get me through this! It tastes wonderful in hot chocolate and of course a little buzz is nice LOL! My 12 year old has no assignments this week so I’m letting her hang out in her room. The 8 year old has things he can do online through that he does in school on his chrome book so and his teacher is wonderful and giving us things to keep them active with. But he can’t sit and pay attention for very long. I feel bad because I know he’s going stir crazy and needs to be around his peers but not much I can do about it! We’ll get through it.


good luck to all of us!

don’t know about ya’ll but.....the grocery stores here are pitiful. I went to 2 stores today....still can’t get toilet paper but got some paper towels. Both stores were basically out of meat! No eggs. No bread.The smaller store was out of milk and coffee creamer too. We mainly needed meat to freeze but all I could get was a seasoned tri tip and 2 rib eyes from the butchers counter. So we will be living off pasta, cereal and rice for a while LOL.

Worried, how old are you children?    Could you induce them to a quiet state by projects such as coloring?  Lots of down time?  Nap time?

Makes no sense you cannot see your mother. Ask your county how to safely gain family visits.

well the inevitable has happened—my county has its first 2 confirmed cases. Both patients picked it up while traveling internationally. And we have been ordered to shelter in place! All nearby counties already ordered sheltering in place but my county was dragging its feet!

This is day 2 of the schools being closed and let me just say.....my patience is shot. I am not cut out for home schooling! So much respect for teachers who do this daily because I just about lost my mind trying to keep my & year focused and on task. But on the bright side we are healthy and safe at home and that is all that is important. My husband has to go in to work, his profession is one that never shuts down and is fortunate/unfortunate enough to have job security no matter what and while the city is essentially closed, he still has to report for work. He works a desk job now so he’s not at as much risk as most of his coworkers so I am not too worried. Selfishly I kind of wish he was working with home and could share in the home school duties to save my sanity hehe! It is what it is....I am glad we are ordered to shelter in place.

Techie, you asked...I think given the vulnerabilities, the rapid spread, the lack of sufficient tests, I would err on the side of caution.  It's easier to be proactive than to deal with the consequences.    And there's peace in isolation. 

And unfortunately, we don't know until too late if we've been in contact with someone who's carrying the virus.   So, why take chances?  

From your description, it sounds as though b/c your area is rural, there wouldn't be that many hospitals, especially ones equipped with the necessary testing, quarantine, neg pressure rooms or isolation facilities.  Even the larger metro areas don't have everything they need in the hospitals.   Again, why take the chance?  

This is an interesting article on the subject, on the resistance of some of the Millennials, of young people who don't accept and won't cooperate with the quarantine guidelines.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/a-generational-war-is-brewing-over-coronavirus/ar-BB11ihOw?ocid=spartandhp

Any one of us could come in contact with someone with this mindset and be exposed.    To me, it isn't worth the risk.   

And truthfully, I'm really enjoying not feeling obligated to go out.   I  love staying home and reading, and I've got boxes and boxes of material, of yarn, embroidery thread, art work to complete, and now that I've got my new eyes, I can play music again.  So I'm enjoying this respite.

And it's almost planting time!

If my father were alive though, I would be quarantining him, especially since his church friends had no common sense and brought over bunches of kids whenever they wanted to visit.   

I might have taken the chance if I were younger, and hadn't gone through a caregiving journey, but after that, I've become much more anxious about exposures, especially to COVID 19.  

Be safe, but not sorry.

schrederkim,

I reread your original post. She is not in independent living, but an independent care facility. What does that mean? Privately owned? What level of care? It sounds like nursing home level, but how is it they you have been providing the nursing care instead of them? In a later post, you said that you give her showers, medication, food, and change bandages. If this facility is unable to provide these services, and they won’t let you in to do them, she should be moved to one that can provide proper care.

Just had a lovely talk with my mother on FaceTime. The facility has bought several iPads. Family members sign up to get a call at a certain time and the activity directors make the call for the resident. It was so good to see her face! - though she didn’t want to look at the screen because she said she looked terrible! I told her everyone looks awful on those screens. She kept looking at her face instead of mine, and turning away! I think you can eliminate the self screen. I’ll ask about it. She told me that the food has been wonderful there lately, so I wonder if they are cranking up the menu during this time of isolation? They normally have pretty good food, and she doesn’t complain about it much.

I would ask the community if they could purchase an Alexa Show or Google device, which would allow residents to interact with loved ones. Not certain if the communities have the capacity to do this now. Ideally, you could purchase a device for your loved one's room, but the community may not be willing to set it up. However, if you and/or other families, purchased units for the community as a whole, maybe they would consider installing it. My Mom is in Memory Care. Having Alexa Show has been a godsend given the lock down.

Decision time approaches.

Mom and I are both in the high risk group but there's only been 3 cases (all related to international travel) within 100 miles of our home in Northeast TN (across 3 states). We live in a mostly rural area with 3 medium sized cities (around 60,000 each) and several small cities (10,000-20,000). Following the CDC recommendations, schools, churches, and other organizations have retreated to online only or canceled meetings for at least 2-3 weeks. Restaurants have gone to every other table seating or delivery only.

Mom's ADC is still open since it has less than 40 clients; there's a full time nurse there checking each client twice a day and supervising extra cleaning.

My brother (who normally visits 1-2 times weekly) is working reduced hours in a factory where workers are distanced by manufacturing requirements and he is taking hygiene and distancing seriously.

My nephew (who lives next door and his kids are normally in our home daily) is continuing his construction work and his crews are probably the most covid-19 unconcerned people in our social circle. Because construction is dirty work, my nephew's daily after work routine is to pull his boots off outside the house and then head to the laundry room to stripe down to his boxers (clothes straight into washer) before taking a shower. His wife really just woke up to the potential threat covid-19 poses to her parents (in their 80s and lifelong smokers) in the last few days. Most of the kids are old enough to understand why hygiene is important; they have not protested hand washing and changing into clean clothes after school when entering my home. Since this weekend, their step-mother started enforcing the same rules in her/their home.

I order food for delivery or pick up or get my brother or niece-in-law to bring a few items when they are already out doing their own shopping. Mom and I are capable of living in almost total isolation... so when do we begin? Although Mom has MCI, she still practices her lifelong good hand washing discipline and will use sanitizer whenever asked.

My plan has been to continue ADC until there is a community spread case in our area, primarily because Mom wants to go. I can live without the respite ADC provides but Mom really wants to get out of the house. On the non-ADC days, she often spends most of the afternoon trying to talk me into taking her visiting, although the people she wants to visit are frequently long deceased. I've been ill and not up to taking her on drives but hopefully that will change soon.

Continue ADC, let the kids keep coming and my brother continue visiting, at least until there's some cases in our community? Or isolate ourselves now?

My sibling was trying to get me upset and panicky about the virus... Do you have supplies for 30 days? Did you apply for credit? You know this is worse then the bird flu!!!
Did you know that "they" ordered 250,000 more body bags?
Really... I texted, reserve one for me and put my name on it.... I am too tired to get into the panic mode...
Do you have food for 30 days? Pet food? I texted him a pic of my dog and cat together. And then the other cat for some reason, likes to fold himself into small things.. LIKE MY CAST IRON PAN !!! (salad bowl, pIace mat, ) texted my sibling : cat is stuffed and ready to bake...
My caretakers for aunt asked me not to bring in dog as they too can be carriers of this virus...
Precautions are on the rise... Be Patient... Keep your kool cap on, stay calm, and sit back a moment before reacting... Better said then done.... I don't do that, but I am trying. grab a glass of wine.. AND BLOG...

amazing.. The place should have in tactics to allow direct family members access, with disposable booties, gloves, masks..
BEE SUITS.

Bees suits are very protective...

Seriously an allowed select few of family members on a list should be permissable. If they deny it.. LET THEM KNOW IN WRITING THEY ARE TOTALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR MOM... !!
My LO had CHF for so many years...She lived for so many years... I think I have CHF... I will get it checked one of these days... MY feet swell up constantly,. One sign of CHF...

My 91 year old mother has been a resident of a Continuing Care Community, living in an independent duplex with my dad, until he died 2 years ago. She has physically declined since Dad’s death. It’s time to move her to Assisted Living. My intention was to spend a few nights with her in AL (approved ) then visit daily to help her acclimatize.

The night before she was to move, we were told AL is going on lockdown. I can move her, but can’t visit her. They would reassess on Monday. Did we want to wait? Yes! My assumption was the lockdown decision would remain, and Mom would stay in her current place until it was lifted. I would continue to care for her in the interim— I went on FMLA a few weeks ago to do so. But, no. Now mom needs to vacate her place by Friday. Her current place is likely sold. (This is how CCCs work. It’s kind of a Ponzi scheme. You buy in but don’t get your $$ back until you check out for good.) I am gravely concerned over her mental well being. She didn’t want to go to AL and has never been a good advocate for her needs.

I know we are contractually obligated to move by Friday. But how can they let anyone in AL after they’ve locked it down?

Harrah’s Casino in New Orleans closing in Louisiana and our neighbors, Mississippi gulf coast casinos are closing as well.

Bars are now closing and restaurants will be take out or drive through only.

All museums are closed. Movie theaters are closed.

Our governor wants to adhere to stricter regulations to reduce spreading. Death rate is at 3. Over 100 cases in our state with the majority being in New Orleans.

A doctor also announced if we are infected we should not be around our animals. We would need to have someone else care for our animals.

"Regular flu" ....
The CDC estimates that so far this season there have been at least 22,000 deaths, 36 million flu illnesses, 370,000 hospitalizations.

Rates for children 0-4 years and adults 18-49 years are now the highest CDC has on record for these age groups

Flu ("regular flu") activity was high in Puerto Rico and 41 states. It was moderate in Ohio and New Hampshire. It was low in the District of Columbia, Alaska, Delaware, Idaho and Nevada.

Only minimal amounts of flu were reported in Arizona, Florida and Wyoming.

*********
And yet, depending on which age group and which source you read, around HALF (50 %) of people do NOT get flu vaccines.

So my thought is, how many will get a coronavirus vaccine when it one day becomes available ???

"Everyone" is so worried about the coronavirus vaccine which has no available vaccine yet. But the "regular flu" which does have a vaccine is not discussed.... is actually ignored when there IS a vaccine available. WHY IS THAT ???? 22,000 deaths is by no means a small amount !!!!

I am indeed. I cannot tell you how heart breaking this is for me and my mother. Big hugs to all going though this. My father was placed in a Memory Care unit in October after 8 years of home care . He was hospitalized with kidney issues and pnuemonia. They took him off his Namenda and Excelon patch. Took him off his meds..My mother is 76.. Dad is 78 with the disease since 2011. He also has kidney issues and is near the end I'm afraid. We never wanted to place him but at 76 my mother couldn't physically do it. There were lots of bumps but just this month we felt we had a routine and some adjustments with meds. We even hired two lovely private care givers for extra care at mealtimes and companionship ( 4hours)so Mom could rest since she goes daily. Since admission he has become almost completely immobile (was walking assisted prior) Has lost 20 lbs in 5months and displays behavioral issues such as repetitive clapping and high agitation . The choice to place him was hard enough. Now my mother who goes daily as well as myself whenever I can and take an active role in his care are banned since Friday. His private aides are banned. He cannot talk in the phone nor understand where we are. The place is understaffed as it is hence why we go so much. We have forefathers being fed absolved the way we would be. We have to rely on pictures. I cry everyday not knowing how his day is, if he scared,lonely etc. while I understand the reasons behind it the workers pose the same threat of spreading the virus. For active families like ours who are not just casual visitors there should have been the option of daily screenings. Mom went so far as to go to her doctor and get screened and tested and even applied for a job there that's how desperate we are to see him. Here in N Y we are told it can go on for 8 weeks. We are heartbroken and worried. I have called the center of the again and even emailed the governor not that it will do any good. We are desperate.