A new set of words and terms have spread alongside the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). It’s important to understand what they mean. Here are some definitions:
Community spread – Cases of the virus that have an unknown origin and cannot be traced to international travel or known contact with someone who is sick.
Essential jobs – These are required to keep society running. Employees who are required to report to work, even when everyone else has been ordered to stay home. Generally includes hospital staff, law enforcement, people who work at gas stations, grocery stores and pharmacies.
Flatten the curve – Slowing the spread of the disease because if everyone gets sick at once it will overwhelm the hospital system.
Incubation period – The amount of time between contracting a virus and showing symptoms. For COVID-19, this is between two and 14 days. Those infected can spread the disease before they show symptoms.
Immunocompromised – A person whose immune has been weakened to the point their body may not be able to fight off normal illnesses, let alone a serious one like COVID-19.
Isolation – Separates people who are sick with COVID-19 from others in order to stop the spread of the disease.
Lockdown – When all nonessential activities get shut down, with nonessential employees being ordered to work from home.
Mild symptoms – For COVID-19, these can be misleading. A mild case of the virus may seem like a cold or it could include symptoms as serious as fever, cough and pneumonia – but not to the point you need to be hospitalized. Roughly 80 percent of COVID-19 cases are believed to be mild. The rest are “serious” or “critical”.
Pandemic – A sharp increase in the number of people sick with the disease, which has spread globally.
Quarantine – Used for people not sick with COVID-19, but have been exposed to someone who is. It keeps people who might get sick separated from others.
Social distancing – Keeping a distance of at least six feet from other people and avoiding gatherings and unnecessary travel to limit the spread of the disease.
Stay in place – Also called “shelter in place”, this means no one is allowed to leave their home, except to run errands such as grocery and pharmacy shopping.
Ventilator – A machine that moves breathable air into and out of the lungs for patients unable to breathe sufficiently on their own. The most critical COVID-19 patients need ventilators.
