With COVID-19 going around making people ill, the Ohio government has issued a ‘stay at home order,’ which means that people can only leave their homes for essential needs like going to the grocery store, going to work if it is deemed essential, or getting essential supplies.
Being forced to stay at home is a difficult concept to get behind in a society where we are free to do almost anything we want to, that is legal, so when we’re ordered to stay at home it can be very stressful.
Even though you may get bored with doing the same routine every day you are helping the fight to stop the spread of the COVID-19 and after writing an article for The Witmarsum called “COVID-19 is not Bluffton’s first pandemic,” it made me realize how effective social distancing was back with the Influenza pandemic and how much it can help with our current situation.
As of April 7, the U.S. is currently number one with cases with over 300,000 confirmed cases and that is because people are not taking the pandemic seriously, like the 44 students of the University of Texas who tested positive for the coronavirus after partying in Mexico on spring break.
An ABC article called “With coronavirus apex still to come, some US hospitals reeling from capacity crunch” explains that hospitals are also struggling with some exceeding their patient capacity and the limited amount of equipment that they have, it has become difficult to care for patients. If people don’t take this seriously, it will continue to spread and put a bigger strain on hospitals and the government.
One reason why people should stay at home is to make sure we’re not spreading the disease to the most vulnerable people. Older people and people with pre-existing medical conditions are more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus.
Another reason that people should stay home is because the disease is supposed to peak in mid-May and mid-June with a decline after Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic, president and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic said on MSNBC, so this pandemic is going to get worse and hospitals are already at capacity with little equipment and medicine at hand. So as long as we are keeping up our hygiene and continue with social distancing we can help stop the spreading of the Coronavirus.
