COVID-19 Updates: What Now?

COVID-19 has devastated our country during this past year. Since March, the total death count due to this virus has now reached 300,000. Not acknowledging this number is a punch in the gut to the many families that have experienced loss. We have had thousands dying every single day the past several weeks as we head into what looks like will be a very dreary winter.

As we go head on with another surge in COVID-19 cases, many states are going into lockdown. With this continued increase in patients, hospitals in the US are nearing capacity which means if this trend continues, it will be difficult for everyone to receive treatment if and when they get very sick. Recognizing this urgency, Virginia announced universal mask mandates for anyone over five years old when in public and further restrictions on indoor gatherings beginning today, Monday, 12/14/2020, of no more than 10 people. As we approach a major holiday season, for many of us this is not the sort of news we’d want to hear.

However, despite the many challenges we are still facing, it looks like we can finally see some light at the end of this seemingly never-ending tunnel. After months of clinical trials and weeks of anticipation, we finally have a vaccine that is backed by science and ready to be administered. It was approved by the FDA late last week and shipped out across the country for distribution over the weekend. As of today, health care workers have begun to receive the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech.

While the vaccine alone will not be an end-all to COVID-19, it does give us hope. Even though everyone who needs it will eventually be vaccinated, life probably won’t go back to pre-COVID times anytime soon. In time, I’m sure we all will welcome returning to a time when we weren’t so scared to simply be ourselves in public. Until then, please do your part and stay safe by wearing a mask and washing your hands often.