Coronavirus
Prepare yourself for the COVID-19 ‘new normal,’ says state health chief
If you think the new coronavirus outbreak in Washington state will end on a certain date with celebrations like the end of a world war, think again.
The life we knew before COVID-19 won’t return for “many, many months and until we probably have a vaccine,” state Secretary of Health John Wiesman said Tuesday.
Prepare for moving into a “new normal” because the virus won’t be stopped or contained until treatments and a vaccine are developed, he said at a press briefing. It’s unclear when that will happen. Research is under way on more than 140 experimental drug treatments and vaccines.
Wiesman said people still will have to maintain social distancing, defined as staying at least 6 feet apart from each other. If they can’t do that at work, people will wear masks. Employers will screen for symptoms. Tele-working will remain an option.
Video or phone conference calls will continue to replace face-to-face meetings. Environmental cleaning of businesses will be needed.
Large gatherings of people won’t be held “in the near future,” said Wiesman, adding that customs such as shaking hands won’t be OK for some time.
“We’re not going to be able to return to sort of daily activity, living the way people knew that. It’s going to be a new normal, one that is much more aware of safety and biosecurity of each of us,” he said.
Wiesman’s remarks came as he and other state officials try to manage the expectations of the state’s 7.5 million residents in the months ahead.
Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order and partial business closures run through May 4. The governor has said repeatedly over the past several days that his emergency proclamation could be extended, stressing that the decision will be based on a review of a myriad of data.
Wiesman said there probably will be “partial easing” of the current restrictions. Certain types of businesses could reopen with reduced occupancy so that social distancing can be maintained.
The state then could watch the data to see if “we’re still stabilizing” or if COVID-19 hotspots develop, Wiesman said.
“If we can identify smaller community areas where we’ve got these hotspots, there’s the opportunity to do a more focused sort of restriction” in a local area, he said.
The state is doing a serum survey with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Dr. Kathy Lofy, the state health officer and chief science officer. It’s a random test of people’s serum to determine if they have antibodies to COVID-19, she said.
“It gives us information on how many people may be immune in Washington. Once we know that information, that will help us better understand how many people have been infected and help us understand how much longer we have to go to continue these social distancing measures,” she said.
Washington’s goals remain to suppress the new coronavirus and to prevent it from springing back once the number of cases drop to only a few, Wiesman said.
“We want to make sure that all of this effort that we have gone through and everybody’s leadership in staying home and staying healthy really have paid off,” he said.
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