Part of our "panic" in King County, WA is that we know that the virus is here and has been incubating for weeks. People are sick (it is flu season after all), but we cannot get them all tested, so we really have no idea how many folks actually have COVID-19. There have been some cases where folks have passed with symptoms that could indicating COVID-19, but, due to the shortage of test kits, we don't know if it was actually Coronavirus or simply an elderly person with a nasty cold or flu.
As of yesterday, there were zero confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the district where I teach - not just in the school system, but in the entire city. As the city is maybe 10 miles from the Life Center in Kirkland, it is almost impossible to believe that there aren't any infected folks at all. So, we know it's here. We just don't know how widespread it really is.
The "Fear of the Unknown" sucks.
@Flash wrote:
The bureaucracy around testing--perhaps because of the shortage of test kits?--means that we had a local death from COVID-19 before the test results came back to 'officially' announce there was a local case. The deceased 'travelled abroad' but no information given of where or when or what they had been doing over the past several weeks. Do our bureaucrats think they are preventing public concern when they don't recognize our need to know to protect our own health and the health of others? What a way to run a pandemic!
Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.