The coronavirus task force at the White House released guidelines today that it hopes will help slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus over the next 15 days.
The document (included below) is two pages and contains the general guidelines Americans are being asked to follow to help prevent the spread of the virus.
Although President Trump said the outbreak could last into July or August, the hope is that following these practices would slow the spread by the end of the month.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, clarified this, however, in today’s White House press conference on the coronavirus, stating, “The guidelines are a 15 day trial guideline to be reconsidering. It isn’t that these guidelines are going to be in effect until July. What the president was saying is that the trajectory of the outbreak may go until then.”
The coronavirus task force guidelines make broader recommendations while largely leaving the details of actual closures and restrictions up to states and localities.
Some states, for instance, have closed down bars and restaurants whereas others have not.
In Florida, for example, Governor Ron DeSantis echoed what the White House guidelines said about restaurants and similar establishments.
“I think what we would likely do is issue kind of a basic guidance for restaurants, and then allow localities to tailor that more or less based on their circumstances. If you look around the state of Florida, this is not uniform in terms of where the virus is percolating,” said DeSantis.
In Washington, DC, all restaurants and bars will be take out only beginning at 10 PM tonight (Monday, March 16).
New Jersey has gone so far as to set voluntary statewide curfews from 8 PM to 5 AM in which residents are asked not to leave their homes during these hours.
The first item listed in the White House coronavirus guidelines is to “listen to and follow the directions of your state and local authorities.”
The Centers for Disease Control updates its website daily with the latest information about the coronavirus at coronavirus.gov.
