Greetings and salutations. Heard from a nurse working the ER at OSF St. Francis in Bloomington Sunday.
She says they are seeing one to three dozen people each shift that they strongly believe are CV positive. But because those people don’t answer all of the screening questions “just right,” the medical staff doesn’t summon someone from the health department to bring out a test kit and do a test. They just send them home and hope they self-quarantine.
“But we all know they’re going to go out to get food. And smokes. And booze. And recreational drugs.”
And that means they are shedding Coronavirus as they walk through stores and buy their food, smokes, booze, etc.
Once again, grocery pickup from Walmart, Hyvee, Kroger, etc. looks better and better with each passing day. And then there’s delivery from Aldi, Walmart, Amazon, etc.
Just for giggles, I poked around Hyvee’s website last night. This Friday had the first pickup slot they had available. They have a much better selection of stuff than Walmart – which must surely look pretty wiped out inside judging by their unavailable items on their website.
For the stuff you do find, if you log in right after midnight at Walmart, you’ll see a nice selection of pickup times for “tomorrow” which is the second day. And you can make changes in your online order / “Cart” (essentially “reserving” your time slot as you remember additional items throughout the day) up to about 1am of the day you’re going to pick up your order. And non-food items like drugs, garden hoses, coolers, toys, and even underwear are fair game for a Walmart staffer to throw into your bag as part of your “grocery” order.
For those going into stores: It’s safer to go now than it will be in two weeks when Illinois has 100,000 cases confirmed (and another quarter or half-million not diagnosed). The bad news? It’ll probably be worse two weeks after that.
Social distancing extended through the end of April.
Yeah, you thought this whole ordeal would end on April 7th? For now at least, President Trump just extended the federal advisory to maintain social distancing through the end of April.
I’d just about bet a PMag that Governor Pritzker will follow President Trump’s lead on Monday for the “Shelter in Place” order for the Land of Lincoln. Perhaps only for Chicagoland but more likely for the entire state.
And even for the month of May, I’d expect recommendations that those over 60 or with underlying health issues to remain sheltered in place while everyone else begins returning to work.
Groceries… So all those people who bought a week or two of groceries are going to be fighting (figuratively, hopefully) to fill their cupboards with food for the entire month of April.
Today and Tomorrow will be the best times to shop. Early mornings mean fewer fellow customers and fewer potential carriers of the virus. Avail yourself to sanitizing wipes to wipe your cart if you shop in-store.
On Wednesday, the “First of the month” crowd will swarm stores upon open, further depleting shelves. That’s roughly a third of Illinois Food Stamp (“Link”) recipients (as the state divides them into thirds: 1st, 10th, and 20th of the month). And mid-April, when the federal checks begin to land, plenty more folks will be buying food for their homes.
Roadblocks coming to a border near you?
MARCH 29 2:58 p.m. — Nearly all road travelers from Louisiana into Texas are required to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival under an expansion made to executive orders issued by Gov. Greg Abbott. The order does not include military, commercial or infrastructure travel. DPS checkpoints have been establish to enforce the new policy.The order also expands an existing order requiring all air travelers to self-quarantine, which originally included New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and New Orleans. It now also includes Miami, Atalanta, Detroit, Chicago as well as all air travelers from California and Washington state. Read more here.
More and more reports of roadblocks are popping up. Rhode Island, for instance, is stopping cars with NY State license plates UPDATE: now ALL out-of-state plates and they aren’t looking for illicit fruit.
Sunday’s Coronavirus update from the White House was very good.
Other random thoughts.
This Chicom virus may be transmissible to cats.
“Strongly believe” are CV positive? Given that many or most of the symptoms are identical to the common flu, what’s that supposed to mean?
If this is as serious as they want to tell us, and they strongly believe these people have it, it would seem kind of reckless for them to send them home and “hope” they self quarantine.
Health care workers in my family in Central and Northern IL report the same. Sending people home who obviously positive, knowing they aren’t going to stay at home. Even if they do stay at home, they’ll send somebody else from the house who is now infected to do the shopping.
Kay Kay asks how do they know? People with the regular flu don’t have a difficult time breathing and nasty nasty cough. And a high fever.
Interesting article. It was discovered that people suffering from a coronavirus could be helped taking a good quality form of Zinc.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/03/no_author/emergency-room-doctor-doesnt-realize-major-signs-symptoms-of-covid-19-coronavirus-cases-match-evidences-of-zinc-deficiency/