Getting closer
 

Two children in a near by county are positive with coronavirus, Skyler teaches kindergarten and had two kids she sent to the nurse after high fevers and vomiting in her room today :( she’s pretty shook because her kids are so young and most come from poverty level homes without a lot of resources available to them. Please pray for her students.

Prayers sent for everyone to stay healthy. I think we have 1-2 confirmed cases here now and my hubs is out on the road all day around our city, dealing with hospitals, carehomes and restaurants so he has to be as careful as he can be. Hope this gets under control soon.

Prayers he stays safe Rae

Oh no, sending lots of prayers and germ zappers your way

Oh my..... Prayers!!!

Our high school was closed today to be cleaned after a student had contact with a doctor that tested positive and the family is now quarantined.

Several colleges in PA and NJ are now closing and doing online for the rest of the semester.

Oh no! I'm so sorry so many of them were unwell and hope it's not related to the virus. Prayers that it passes quickly and that the rest of the school/area stays healthy! :wub:

Yikes! So scary... hoping that this gets under control soon. No cases in Maine yet, but 2 of my sons are in MA, which just declared a state of emergency. Waiting to see if my youngest will be returning to college in Boston (he's currently home on spring break). Hoping my school doesn't end up closing, but we'll see what happens. Crazy.

This is so scary!

Oh no, that's a scary and sad situation. I'm also a kindergarten teacher & we've had such low attendance the past couple weeks. Normal flu season absences, but I find myself worrying when they're out...and then worrying when they return!

Several families (and we don't have that many here, so it leaves a big hole in our community) have evacuated here or plan to do so soon. There are no reported cases in our location (doesn't mean that there are no cases!) but with limited health care & now extremely limited flights out & other travel restrictions, we're all concerned about needing med evac for unrelated illness or injury and not being able to get out. We are planning to go soon...but I feel like I'm leaving my little bubble.

This whole thing is exhausting! Hoping that it will be like some of the previous big bad viruses & slow down once the weather turns. (I don't actually know anything about the weather's impact on other big bad viruses, but my friend said it & I am now firmly grasping that little shred of hope! ;) )

I hope everyone stays safe and healthy :wub:

There's 3 confirmed cases in Ohio, no deaths, My son's college just announced they will extend spring break for a week then do 2 weeks of online classes. His program is design related. He can do some computer work, but he usually works in a shop and uses equipment like laser printer and 3d printer and he's not going to be able to do that. I'm a little ticked. We spent a lot of $ to not learn anything for a semester. Sigh.

My other son is in Seattle, and he said his commute was cut in half last week because so many people were staying home. And his work (microsoft) told them all to work from home for 3 weeks if they can. That seems reasonable given the number of cases and deaths in Seattle area.

Scary but the flu is worse I think. Look how many have died with the flu this year :( its so sad :( I was a scared when my daughter got the flu this year. Everyone in her class got it they just kept passing it back and fourth. I have faith that God is going to watch over us! :)

Hoping everyone keeps healthy & safe. It's getting closer to our town too. I think the first corona cases have popped up only 5 minutes away from us so it's only a matter of time. I can only hope that my parents & inlaws will not get it because their health is poorly already.

7 cases here and one school closed as 1 child got the virus. The mom of one of DS schoolmate is a pilot and waiting for the results so all her family are staying at home. Meanwhile at DS school they cancelled swim lessons as we are in flu season and moms would be scared if their kids sneeze, they don't wanna add fuel to the fire.

ETA just closed all the schools till March 30th, cases ere multipling rapidly since the first one last week on the 4th.

I live not far from Rae, and like she said it's not bad here, but I'm telling you the panic is setting in. Good luck finding toilet paper anywhere! (Which I absolutely don't get!) I have a really bad cold right now though and I'm afraid to go out in public! I booked off work my last two night shifts, and I'm going to be skipping a pep rally event at my daughter's school tomorrow. I feel like if I so much as sniffle in public I'll be ostracized! LOL

It's been reported that it doesn't hit children as hard as older people, so hopefully they can recover quickly.
I still don't understand the panic. My mom was in a nursing home, got pneumonia, and died. I recently looked up how many deaths there are a year from pneumonia, and the CDC reported 50,000 deaths a year with over 250,000 seeking medical care at a hospital for it. I'm not sure why we aren't panicking about that. And about every other time the flu runs through town. Why is it so different this time?

While I am not in a panic, I am being cautious and concerned.

Both my college girls colleges are now effected by closures (temporary for now and switching online learning) and our local high school has a family that was exposed.... and I have one child with asthma that this (like the flu and pneumonia are dangerous to her). And all my day care littles and their families.... I am thinking that the two should not be compared. I think a lot of the fear is because so much is unknown about this new virus.

This new virus is much more contagious and there is no vaccine for it yet. The scientists think we may have one next year.

I found lots of great info on the CDC website and this article from Johns Hopkins.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/heal...019-vs-the-flu

The the number flu infections is much higher only because it's been around longer and testing is more readily available. What makes this dangerous is that there is no immunity or treatment available. The flu completely sucks, don't get me wrong, but this virus has the potential to be very impactful if it's not controlled quickly.

I'm so sorry to hear about your mom :(

What makes this situation dire is introducing yet another contributor to pneumonia-related deaths. Not only will that community have to battle the flu, but will have this too and our healthcare systems are just not equipped to handle the shear volume of people being exposed for the first time. With the flu, there is some inherent immunity from past exposure. This can also impact the resources available to treat other non-Corona illnesses.

Every year, the medical community preaches about flu-protection, so I do think people care about it, but it's so commonplace that they take the flu for granted.

It's very scary here! I've been WFH for about 2 weeks. I work for a F100 company with about 50K employees and everyone has been offered a WFH option. My 47 floor office building was shut down on 3/2. My uncle (88) lives blocks from the Life Care facility in Kirkland. I could go on and on about the personal impacts I've had, but I will spare everyone :wub:

I shared this on FB (she's since been interviewed by a local station), but just in case anyone missed it or we aren't friends. This Seattle woman shares her experience of how she contracted COVID19 and what the illness was like.

Public FB post: https://www.facebook.com/EbethBerkel...1713?__tn__=-R

Interview:
https://www.king5.com/article/news/h...G3lj_7faxrKyHQ

Very worried about you Sheri and your family and friends I hope this passes you all without harm.

Thank you! :wub: :wub: I am completely freaked out! I just received notice they've closed the Seattle School District for a minimum of 2 weeks starting tomorrow. I'm so worried about my mom in her mid-80's. She lives in a senior community (independent apartments).

I'm also helping with the continuity planning at work for our 5k person part of the organization. We are getting everyone equipped to WFH, etc. We have a lot of customer-facing employees. Things are just constantly evolving.

New Mexico, where we are, has 3 presumptive confirmed cases; 2 of which are in their 60s whom returned from a trip in Egypt and the other is a 70 year old lady who just came back from NY. Everyone here thought we were NOT going to get hit, so to speak, but I knew it was inevitable. My 6 year tested positive for RSV, after having it 2 1/2-3 weeks ago and had to do the appointment virtually with his doctor; which I didn't blame him one bit...I didn't feel comfortable going to the hospital/doctor office with so many ill with the flu around here), so here I am at home. Luckily my supervisors allow me to work at home, what I can. I am trying my best to not worry, but we're ready and taking precautions. We have so many international teachers in our state whom travel alot, so yea we are worried.

Praying for all ..... ::hugs::

That is a little too close to home Sherri!

Update today, there's a confirmed case in our town, a man in his 50s is hospitalized. We shall see how this unfolds. Colleges are having classes online, but schools are still open.

I just read an article about a case where a man was dx with the virus, and they watched video of him on a bus. 13 people on the bus were infected. Some boarded the bus a half hour AFTER the man got off the bus! That makes it pretty tough to avoid. Prayers for health and safety for all.

I get that we are in a college town (Purdue) they take a lot of international students and decided to do online learning because of the travelers back to other countries for their spring break. Doug is Sr engineer at Subaru and they decided to stop all travel of his engineers to and from Japan for now also. We are getting pretty worried our spring break flight will be cancelled too but fully understand why things are shutting down.

Keeping you, your mom and the rest of your family in my thoughts Sheri!

Thank you so much!!! :wub::wub:

You know it's gotten bad when Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are infected.

And the NBA puts the season on hold!

It's crazy! One of the Utah Jazz players was diagnosed and I just heard that one of our state senator's aides was also just diagnosed.

It's definitely getting real.

That is why Australia is so concerned. It looks as though Corona Virus and the flu will peak at the same time in our winter. It is spreading rapidly enough here and we still have summer weather!

Ella--I hope everyone in your daughter's school stays healthy! If it helps, the 2 kids sick in your DD's classroom sound more like they have flu or a virus than Covid-19. Kids who get it tend to have very mild symptoms, which is why they're being under-tested and under-diagnosed.

I live in a Virginia suburb of Washington, DC. We have a few diagnosed cases, but I'm sure there are a decent number more that have gone undiagnosed. Our K-12 teachers are about to get trained in distance education in case we need to close schools, and if things go the way I suspect they will I hope they make that call sooner rather than later. We're not there yet. DH works in downtown DC and takes the train to work. I also hope they close his office soon, since his work situation makes me pretty nervous right now. I'm not really worried about my immediate family--none of us are in high risk categories, and if (when?) we catch it we should be fine. But I have a student whose mother is being treated for cancer and a few of my coworkers are in high risk groups; I'm worried about being exposed and then passing it to any of them. My sister and her family live in Westchester County. They know people who are quarantined. They don't have the details yet, but they got an email today about school closing for 2 days and possibly longer. I hope it isn't due to positive tests in their schools. :(

I think the reason for the panic and concern is that the death rates are significantly higher than with flu. With the flu, 0.1% of people who catch it die. With Covid-19, it's at least 1%. I was reading that the WHO's report says that people over 80 who catch it have a higher than 20% mortality rate, and people of all ages with various chronic conditions have death rates of 8-13% depending on what the comorbid condition is. The numbers seem low since there are so many fewer cases of corona virus compared to flu, but when this hits vulnerable people it hits them hard!

(And now I'll get off my soapbox, LOL. I work in education now, but I have a Master's in Public Health. I worked in chronic disease prevention and health education, not anything to do with infectious diseases or pandemics, but I've still been following the news pretty closely lately.)

Oh great. I catch a public bus to/from work. I'm actually able to make my journey without touching any part of the bus with my hands (no hand rails, seats, etc) - fortunately I go so early before the commuter rush that I don't have to stand and hold anything to keep my balance.... then once I'm in the office I go straight to the bathroom sink or grab some hand sanitiser! But I am still concerned, especially after reading things like this!

The virus is beginning to be diagnosed more in our city (Melbourne, Australia), and all of our local events seem to be shutting down this week - a good choice! I suspect our local schools and preschools may follow soon, as I am privy to some information suggesting this. Honestly, I'm considering keeping my children home as of next week, but wondering the implications for my twin Kindergartners, who are just starting out at school (I may be a teacher, but I'm not a homeschooling mum!).

I'm in Maryborough about 2 hours from Melbourne and they are cancelling public events. Also talking about extending our upcoming term 1 holidays by 2 weeks. My son is doing his VCE and they've had meetings about it and the curriculum may be changed/shortened.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

My son's friend and Dad have travelled down from Sydney for this weekend's F1 Grand Prix and now find out that it's cancelled. And I just heard on the radio that all public events of more than 500 people are banned across the country from Monday.

Last night when I went to bed we had 47 cases in PA. All schools are closed. All non essential stores are supposed to be closed. One of my daughters has asthma, and another daughter is mad I won’t let her go see her boyfriend who just flew home from Disney.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk