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UPDATE – Caring for our community: stay-at-home, work-at-home
We are seeing the spread of COVID-19 in the country and in the last week we have seen more cases. The Senate has been asking the Administration for its COVID-19 plans since last week to ensure the public health is protected and procedures and resources are available to mitigate and treat outbreak if and when it happens. We expected a strong directive to protect the state against the spread of COVID-19. Yesterday, Governor ordered the quarantine of all arriving persons but left shelter-in-place voluntary to the counties. Today both the House and Senate sent a letter asking Governor for strong decisive action to impose a shelter-in-place directive on all persons across the state so we can contain community spread and protect our island communities.
For us in Honolulu, we have one of the strongest actions to protect against COVID19 community spread through Mayor Caldwell’s stay at home /work from home order. As of tomorrow 3/23 at 4:30pm, all non-essential workers are to stay at home and work at home until April 30. It details the list of essential functions, businesses and activities allowed to operate but they all must follow strict social distance requirements, i.e. 6 foot rule and avoid shaking hands, washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds as frequently as possible or using hand sanitizer, covering coughs or sneezes, and regularly sanitizing high touch surfaces.
Stay at home and stay healthy.
“FLATTEN THE CURVE” You may have heard of this term and why it’s important to understand in pandemics like we face with the spread of COVID-19. The “curve” researchers refers to the projected number of people who will contract COVID-19 over a period of time. As there is currently no vaccine or specific medication to treat COVID-19, and because testing is limited in the U.S., the only way to flatten the curve is through collective action. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that all Americans wash their hands frequently, self-isolate when they’re sick or suspect they might be, and start “social distancing” (essentially, avoiding other people whenever possible or at least stay 6 feet apart). To understand why it’s important to do our part in social distancing, this links you to a good video we’ve found that may be helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgBla7RepXU&feature=youtu.be
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