Is anyone wearing masks where you are? What have they done, to respond to the virus?
WRT the outside world, can't say. I have not been off campus for about six weeks now so I don't know first hand what people are doing out there. And I don't pay much attention to local news--NC still doesn't feel like home to me-- so I don't see a lot of street scenes on TV.
On campus, of course, we are regulated like a residential care facility, one with a nursing home, to boot, so we have more stringent rules not likely to be relaxed even if/when the state relaxes them for the general population.
I am expected to mostly stay in my apartment. When I go into areas like the Bistro to pick up food or mail room I have to wear a mask. I don't wear one when I'm out walking each morning. There's plenty of space out there and residents are already acclimated to keeping distance. I don't wear one in the hallways to get to the elevator to get outside. People are mostly tucked in and I don't usually encounter anyone in the halls.
Management has adapted by segregating the communities as much as they can. If we get a covid case, they want to be able to contain it. Staff are compartmentalized. No visitors are allowed on campus. No independent-living residents are allowed in rehab, memory, or nursing areas, even the spouses of the afflicted. Apartments and cottages have separate staff and locations for food pick-up. Outside residents can't enter the apartment buildings. Inside residents aren't supposed to enter cottages. We can all go off campus for essential medical care but nothing elective. Even with that, I'm denied housekeeping services for my apartment for a quarantine-like two weeks if I see a doctor. (They got a few housekeepers to live on campus in quarantine for two weeks, then tested them, so they can provide partial housekeeping services. Call it their clean team. Need to keep them that way.) I can drive outside as long as I don't get out of my car. If I get out of my car other than for essential medical services, I'd be in quarantine confined to my apartment for two weeks. Management has done a good job getting us services. They have, for example, arranged to get businesses to pick up a car and take it to be inspected. They have had classes on Zoom and Facetime. They receive deliveries at the gates and then deliver to residents. And they have worked out deals for getting groceries including picking up orders from grocery stores. A couple of days ago I got a gallon of strawberries as part of a deal they made with a local farmer. They even have someone making runs to the ABC store. (She had to get a license to carry that much booze.) It's confining but bearable, at least for a while. |
