Coronavirus spread sparks California to request 5.3 million senior citizens to stay home
The call for home isolation also extended to people with chronic conditions that make them vulnerable to the virus.The announcement raises many questions for senior citizens. For those who live alone, they will have to grapple with getting shopping done. For others, it will be a radical change of life with no firm idea of when the restrictions will end.
“We recognize that social isolation for millions of Californians is anxiety inducing but we recognize what all the science bears out and ... we need to meet this moment head-on and lean in,”Officials have long said senior citizens and the frail are at highest risk. Counties in California have already banned those groups from attending many types of public gatherings.
Those at higher risk include those over the age of 70 and with underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, obesity, asthma, disease of the heart, lung or kidney and those with weakened immune systems. If someone who falls into one of those categories does get sick, early diagnosis is important to allow more time to treat the patient, which may include putting the patient on oxygen or, when necessary, a ventilator to help them breathe if their lungs begin to fail.
Experts have been urging protections against high-risk groups. The key is “keeping this virus away from nursing homes, long-term-care facilities and elderly people whose lungs can’t recover from this,” Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School, said last week.
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