They announced on the news today there are 3 cases of coronavirus in a county of Cleveland. I am not panicking or anything, but I would like to know what I should be concerned about. DO I stock up on foodstuffs and toilet paper, not go to any large places (besides the library).
Guidelines?
- Wash your hands. That is the single most useful thing you can do for both yourself and others. Soap and water is best. Hand sanitizer is second best but still useful.
- Avoid touching your face, especially before you wash your hands
- Have enough supplies on hand to spend 2 weeks in your home without needing to run to the store for anything. You don’t need more than this, and stocking more than 4 weeks total (unless you already have it) is just being greedy/hoarding. Yes, that includes toilet paper but honestly 2-4 weeks worth is plenty. This is not the zombie apocalypse.
- Avoid travel unless you really really have to travel
- Avoid large crowds. This would also include the library as books do not ward off viruses. Unless your library is almost never occupied, in which case it’s not a crowd situation.
All excellent advice from Broomstick.
I would also add to disinfect things around you that you handle regularly, i.e. smartphone, door knobs, mouse, etc. Also, be mindful of things that the general public can touch like elevator buttons and that communal bottle of ketchup in the cafeteria. Everyone may not be washing their hands as often as they should.
Unless you are at serious risk, I think that question should be what can I do to protect the life and health of others from the corona virus.
Nitpick: while books are ineffective against most viruses, they’re remarkably good at eliminating the virus of ignorance. Still, your point is well taken. 
Don’t hesitate to go to the library if you want to. Just keep your hands clean while you’re there.
This weekend, I walked at my nearby mall, which had a lot of customers, and saw TWO people wearing masks. One was a woman who also wore a stocking cap, so she’s likely on chemo, and the other was a small child who may well have had some other health problem that compromises her immune system.
Cocaine kills the virus.
Dude, it’s the Corona virus. A lime is the antidote.
…
Washing your hands is the thing to do. But be sure to wash your hands thoroughly. Get good and sudsy, and be sure to get between the fingers and under the nails.
Some suggestions are to recite your “ABC’s”, or sing happy birthday (twice!) while washing to give you a sense of how long it should take.
Or, as recommended by a meme I saw, “wash your hands like you just ate a mango and need to take out your contact lenses.”
If you don’t take care of yourself you can’t take care of anyone else.
Also - risk categories are statistics, and only give odds. There have been some people who would seem to be low-risk that have wound up with serious illness or even death, and others that would seem to be high risk who only had mild illness. There is no reason for anyone to needlessly expose themselves to this. Even if that person only has a mild case they can still transmit it to others while ill.
By taking steps to keep yourself well you help protect everyone else around you.
The door to the street, too, if you live in an apartment building or similar. At my place, although someone sweeps and mops weekly, I don’t think anyone ever cleans the door at the entrance. I’ll probably do it myself this morning, but some part of the door has to be touched in order to go out to the street. IMO, it’s worth taking into account, especially if you smoke.
Echoing another thread, a few times I’ve approached someone and we simultaneously laughed about preferring not to shake hands. Another couple of times, a handshake was thrust upon me, so to speak, and I preferred to just do it, but I think I’m going to start refusing, for a while, anyway.
You DO know that the toilet paper thing was mass hysteria, started in Australia?
I have ‘stocked up’ a little with non-perishables like pasta and rice, and some tins. I will be a LOT more conscientious about handwashing and I will carry some alcohol wipes to clean off things like the handle on a supermarket trolley.
For me at least, it’s not hard to avoid close contact with other people, but I can see that it will be hard, or very hard for those who are still working.
I’ve always used my elbow or clothing to open doors, etc in public.
With grocery home delivery do you really need to stock up ahead of time?
Depends on how well you trust the cleanliness of the supermarket delivery person.
And whether they get paid sick leave or need to work through.
When using a public restroom with an exit door you need to pull, if at all possible I use the paper towel I dried my hands with to open the door, and hopefully there is a trashcan near the door to throw away the paper towel.
Do research on strengthening the immune system; one can only avoid the virus transference for X amount of time. See 1918…
And if the grocery store you want to use has the items you want in the first place.
On top of it, you really don’t want your immune system to be TOO strong, or you’ll get autoimmune disorders.
Get yourself a thermometer. Ideally an “instant” read one. It’s easy to psych yourself out and cough and think you have a fever and get in a tizzy. Take your temp in the morning and at night. It will reduce potential anxiety.
This was my learning from SARS (I lived in China for all of that), and from living about 2 miles from the epicenter in Seattle (Kirkland actually).