The Coronavirus, more scientifically known as the Novel Coronavirus of 2019, is the outbreak of a respiratory disease that started in the Wuhan province of China.
The disease is similar to the common flu in the sense that it is due to a virus; however, it is more dangerous because it has not been previously seen in humans. Thus, there are no vaccines or cures for it yet.
There are currently 80,354 cases of Coronavirus worldwide and seven states in the U.S. have confirmed cases of this virus.
While bad news spread as quickly as wildfire, it is important to note the optimism as 27,898 of the infected have recovered from this disease and are now under good health compared to the 2,707 deaths that were reported.
In response to this outbreak, many countries such as the United States and Australia closed their borders with China, and others took measures such as airport controls to prevent the spread of the virus in the beginning of February.
Some students have experienced family members doing voluntary quarantine to combat the 14 day incubation period of the virus.
This means that while living under the same roof, these students cannot have a face-to-face conversation with their family members under quarantine because they could potentially have the disease, despite not showing any symptoms for two weeks.
“The hardest thing was not being able to talk to her in a close distance, it was just super weird not being able to hug my mom or eat breakfast with her,” commented Claire Liu, a freshman whose mother was under self-quarantine for a few weeks.
For the majority of the population, this virus has yet to have an effect on their life, but the communities with a high Asian concentration have seen an increase in the usage of surgical face masks.
Most of the stores such as Walgreens, Walmart, and CVS are all out-of-stock on protective face masks both online and in store.
There were also stores such as Daiso in Arcadia and Temple City that have put out a sign stating they are out of masks, which comes to show the demand of these products in response to the Coronavirus.
At the end of the day, the most preventative measure against the Coronavirus is not using face masks as experts advise for those undiagnosed to leave them to those already sick people and those working in the medical industry.
For the general public, health organizations suggest maintaining good hygiene and washing hands often to prevent this virus that has literally gone viral.
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