I work at a call center for a freight line, think of it as a compliance line. We are partnered with all major appliance manufacturers, their retail locations (the Home Depot, Lowe's, Costco) and some randoms like Wayfair, Werner and Estes (final mile deliveries and installations).
We got our letter- the one we keep in the car in case we get pulled over. My company provided one for my mother so she could continue to baby sit for me while all this goes on around us.
They have declared us essential personnel due to the nature of our deliveries and installs: appliances. It's the only way to keep people in their homes; having a place to store food, a place to cook food and a safe place for medicinal storage. Laundry for sanitizing and of course we check on water and gas leaks. Per GE we will not close at any point during this pandemic. We will accrue normal attendance points for all missed. 3 points per missed day, 12 points are termination.
On a personal end I have asked my mom to not take my kids into the store if she has to go out for anything. My youngest is not going to her dads as we are trying to lower the chances of exposure. Both me and my boyfriend are working in full swing, we don't need to add possible contaminates.
I sit at my desk, my little cubicle near the window and just inhale the smell of my wax melt this morning. My asthma is kicking my butt already but it has been for like a week. Before anyone who may read this gets all disturbed; it's just that time of year. It's March allergies and asthma are flared.
Just now I was approached by my manager asking my thoughts on working every other day for 11 hour shifts so that we can further distance the employees. It would require a 14 hour cut for 2 weeks but it could be worse.
Further more today at midnight starts the city wide shut down. Bars, restaurants, car plants, city offices, city owned buildings- all added to what's already shut down. They call it the "STAY AT HOME ORDER".
This order decrees that 1.)all individuals are ordered to stay in their place of residence. When outside (shared or out door spaces) must be at least 6ft away from the next person. You are only allowed to leave for essential activities, essential governmental functions, or to participate in essential business and operations as they define in the order. 2.)Non-Essential operations must cease. 3.) Prohibited activities- all public and private gatherings of any number are prohibited. Any gathering of more than 10 is prohibited unless stated otherwise, specifically, or it is a family that is that large. 4.)only essential travel and essential activities is permitted. 5.)civilians are only able to leave their homes for the following reasons and still have to take the aforementioned precautions: A) health and safety. B) for necessary supplies and services (provisions). C)out door activities such as exercise but have to use social distancing guidelines. Weddings and funerals still permitted with proper social distancing. D)those who are still required to work are expected to work. E)To take care of others.
There's 12 pages of this order available online. They want "the maximum number of people to self-isolate in their places of residence for as long as possible in order to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. I believe I read an article on the curve of the virus. The idea is to stay under the line where the capacity of our health care system is still in tact.
There was a proposed $1000 check for all working Americans (economic stimulus package) to help with this difficult time, however, that was voted out by the democrats. This was released today. 100 million in lock down as of 6 hours ago.
I find myself wondering how we, as a country, didn't learn from the SARS, H1N1 and Ebola viruses? I mean this is so messy and what about the entertainers of our country? We are told to turn to free "concerts" on the internet, virtual tours of art museums and other attractions... maybe these times should also be brought up when someone even mentions cutting funding for the arts. Perhaps this is something for another time. Let's stick a tack in it and come back to it later.
Surgeon General says "Everyone needs to act as if they have the virus right now. So, test or no test, we need you to understand you could be spreading it to someone else. Or you could be getting it from someone else. Stay at home," -then added how he think it's going to be so much worse this week. Higher rates all the way around.
