Community Response

From seniors not being able to graduate, to weddings being canceled, to people being furloughed from their jobs, to overworked health care workers, I think it is fair to say that no one is happy with the impacts that COVID-19 is having.  For Clifton Park, and the rest of New York for that matter, Governor Cuomo has been giving daily briefings to keep the public up to date on information regarding the coronavirus and the regulations that are in place, a link to those briefings can be found here or on the Helpful Links page of this blog. Additionally, the Town of Clifton Park website has a daily report about cases and that can be found here. The current plan is to start reopening certain regions in seven different stages in order of risk level and after different criteria have been met (more information about the phases is outlined here). Up until now, we have been closed except for essential businesses that have primarily been food and stores such as Target and Walmart and places that can do sidewalk pickup. With this being said, I am personally a little bit worried about making moves to reopen things because without a vaccine or cure at the moment I am afraid that this disease could begin to spread rapidly again and we will be back where we started. However, I trust the people who know more about this disease than I do, and as of right now, the Capital Region has been cleared by the governor to enter phase 1 which allows construction, agriculture, forestry, pickup/dropoff retail, manufacturing, and wholesale trade to resume (1). The reason we are able to move to this phase is that people have been social distancing and wearing the appropriate protective gear of masks (and gloves if they choose to).

How Can We Help?

While not all of us are essential/health care workers, there are still little things we can all do to help our community. First, PLEASE continue to social distance and wear the appropriate protective wear- even if you don’t think you are at risk, you are helping the people who are! Second, I have personally been using an app called HowWeFeel where I check in every day to say if I feel symptomatic, how much contact I have had with people outside of my house, etc. and it is meant to help trace the spread of COVID-19 (2). And third, the Red Cross is in desperate need of general blood/ plasma donations and they are also collecting plasma from people who have recovered from confirmed cases to possibly help fight COVID-19 (3). According to their website, they are taking all possible precautions to make the process as safe as possible so if people are willing and able to donate that would be one way to help! I know that Clifton Park will be having blood drives at the Southern Saratoga YMCA on May 22nd, the Halfmoon Town Hall on May 29th, and many more that can be found by searching by zip code here. Finally, some health care facilities are accepting donations for health care workers including Ellis and the link to donate there can be found here. The bottom line is that even though many of us are feeling helpless during this time, there are still ways that we can help each other and ways to make sure we aren’t making this any worse than it has to be. 

Sources:

(1) https://dailygazette.com/article/2020/05/19/cuomo-capital-region-cleared-to-start-phase-1-covid-19-reopening-wednesday

(2) https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/new-how-we-feel-app-aims-to-improve-covid-19-response/

(3) https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/types-of-emergencies/coronavirus-safety.html

Photo:

https://ssir.org/articles/entry/civic_health_and_social_distancing