I know many if not most of us are concerned about the impact of Covid-19 on our families and ourselves. I live on Vancouver Island, where there currently is one confirmed case and wanted to share my experience. It shows how quickly things are changing.
I had my annual check up scheduled for next week. As I am not sick, and the check up is not time sensitive, I called the clinic yesterday morning offering to cancel. I was assured that they had lots of room next week and would still see me.
3 hours later I got a call asking me to reschedule for May. The clinic staff and doctors decided it was safer for the community to cancel all non-urgent appointments for the time being.
Social distancing is one of the ways Canada is trying to control the spread. Avoiding the doctor's office unless necessary is one of the ways to do that.
I am not a hands on caregiver to Mum or Dad, but I am providing regular care to my preemie grandson. I have to stay healthy so I can continue to provide his care.
We did receive an email from our bldg strata though requesting no more than three people should use the elevator at one time. Not sure how that will work as our elevators are quite slow.
A friend in PA is a horse dentist. Her clients are cancelling appointments. She asked, even if I come in with disposable boot covers, gloves and mask?
Then her friend was to come over for dinner she was making, and he said he was in the city earlier that day, and doesn't want to go anywhere else. Staying low.
I went to the store last night..CRAZY.... shelves were empty, no rice, water, toilet paper, hand sanitzer, but soap was still in good in stock. Tylenol was empty.
Another store, the meat section was almost empty. Asked if they had any chicken. He rolled out his shelves of chicken from the freezer.. As soon as he placed them in the case, it was gone. He just shook his head. He said why bother putting them in the case... It was like that all day long.
As the health officials have been saying, please call first before going to your doctor or the ER if you think you are infected. Call first so they know to expect you and can thus isolate you from the other patients.