New coronavirus cases cropping up across Europe are being traced back to Italy
How could the possible spread of coronavirus change our daily lives? Schools, businesses, and healthcare systems could all be impacted, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC has been referring to guidance on how to deal with flu pandemics in a document called «Community Mitigation Guidelines to Prevent Pandemic Influenza United States 2017.” It will be the “blueprint” for community interventions, and the agency is adjusting its recommendations to the specific circumstances of the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.
The document draws from the findings of nearly 200 journal articles written between 1990 and 2016, and it includes a summary of lessons learned from the response to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, which killed hundreds of thousands globally.
Here’s what it says:
- Schools: Based on the 2017 document, in the event of community spread in the United States, federal, state and local health officials might urge possible “social distancing measures” for schools, in which students would remain 3 feet from each other to reduce spread of disease. In a worst-case scenario, schools would close.
- Workplaces: Businesses are to consider work-from-home policies and health care facilities are to check inventory of protective equipment.
«The trajectory of what we’re looking at over the weeks and months ahead is very uncertain, but many of the steps that we have taken over the past 15 years to prepare for pandemic influenza and our experience going through the 2009 H1N1 pandemic of influenza remind us of the kinds of steps that our health care system, our businesses, our communities and schools may need to take,» Dr. Anne Schuchat, CDC’s principal deputy director, said during a press conference at the White House on Wednesday.
“We do expect more cases, and this is a good time to prepare,» she said. «It’s the perfect time for businesses, health care systems, universities and schools to look at their pandemic preparedness plans, dust them off and make sure that they’re ready.»
