Sending hugs and positive thoughts to all of you, especially those who are sick, have sick family members, are worried about exposure, or are suffering economically during this time.
In Virginia there have been 604 confirmed cases (out of about 7300 tests), 83 hospitalizations, and 14 deaths. The Washington, DC metro area (DC plus parts of Maryland and Virginia) is up to 1300 cases, and my county has 124 cases and 2 deaths. So it's not good and unfortunately it will get worse, but I'm hopeful that schools closed and teleworking began early enough in the trajectory that we'll avoid overwhelming the medical system. The kids and I have already been out of school for 2 full weeks, and on Monday DH will be at 2 weeks of teleworking.
We're not under a stay at home order and some non-essential businesses are still open. Many others have closed voluntarily. Places where groups gather, like restaurants and movie theaters, have been ordered to close (delivery and takeout only for restaurants) and any personal services that require contact, like hairdressers and spas, are closed. Schools, government buildings, playgrounds, libraries, etc. are all closed.
In the first week that schools were closed, some people weren't taking it seriously enough. Kids in our neighborhood were getting together outside, going to playgrounds, and so on. But as our numbers went up and more things closed, people started to pay attention. On the rare occasion that I've gone out, it has been freakily empty on the roads and in stores. Makes me happy to see that, given the circumstances! I've been to the grocery store once a week, at a less busy time, and have gone to practice driving with my 16-year old since we can do that without leaving the car. The kids and I went to walk on a trail last week, and it was busier than I'd expected. Since then we've kept closer to home, walking in our neighborhood where it's easier to keep our distance than on a narrow trail.
The governor announced this week that the schools won't be reopening this school year, so the schools have been busy making their plans. Until now there has been only optional, ungraded review work. So far the plans they're making seem sensible and do-able. My county has the 10th biggest school system in the country: 188,000 students and 16,000 teachers. The plan is too detailed to list it all out, but there will be a combination of online video conferencing and mailed paper packets, with the youngest kids getting mostly paper and the oldest kids getting all online education. All high schoolers have a county-issued computer, and they're working on distributing wifi to those who need it as well as laptops to middle and elementary schoolers. I think my 10th grader and 5th grader, both of whom are very independent and in honors classes, will do fine. It's my 8th grader for whom this will be a huge struggle. He has a lot of special needs, and I'm basically going to need to be his special ed teacher for the next 2 months. They can grant him extra time and a reduced workload through distance education, but many of his accommodations are things that can only be delivered by a live person sitting next to him.
All of that said, I feel very lucky to be in the position we're in. My sister's family lives right outside NYC, in Westchester County, and for a while we were pretty worried about them since they were still in school and going to work and activities longer than they probably should have been. It's now been about 2 weeks since their schools closed and they started teleworking, so hopefully they were't exposed and won't be. My parents are both 75 with underlying health conditions, so my father has taken everything very seriously and they've both been self-isolated for almost a month now. I worry about whether they'll start having trouble getting groceries and things, but so far they're okay and have been able to get their deliveries.
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