BREAKING NEWS:
The novel (new) Corona virus is a pandemic of respiratory disease spreading from person-to-person. This situation poses a serious public health risk and is rapidly getting worse each day. This informational site will keep you up-to-date with the latest updates, research, news, and resources to keep you protected.
Reported illnesses have ranged from mild symptoms to severe illness and death for confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.
If you develop emergency warning signs for COVID-19 get medical attention immediately. Emergency warning signs include*:
• Trouble breathing
• Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
• New confusion or inability to arouse
• Bluish lips or face
Reported illnesses have ranged from mild symptoms to severe illness and death for confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.
Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds especially after you have been in a public place, or after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing. If soap and water are not readily available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Cover all surfaces of your hands and rub them together until they feel dry. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
Avoid close contact with people who are sick. Put distance between yourself and other people if COVID-19 is spreading in your community. This is especially important for people who are at higher risk of getting very sick.
You should wear a facemask when you are around other people (e.g., sharing a room or vehicle) and before you enter a healthcare provider’s office. If you are not able to wear a facemask (for example, because it causes trouble breathing), then you should do your best to cover your coughs and sneezes, and people who are caring for you should wear a facemask if they enter your room.
Clean AND disinfect frequently touched surfaces daily. This includes tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets, and sinks. If surfaces are dirty, clean them: Use detergent or soap and water prior to disinfection.
Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that can cause illnesses and ranging from a cold to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
This new virus often appears with aches, fever, chills and congestion.
The outbreak began in Wuhan, China - population 11 million in December 2019. There are now at least 180 countries and territories infected.
The virus has sickened more than 1 million people and the death toll is more than 53,000.
Because this virus spreads between humans, travel around the world has been suspended.
The best ways to reduce your risk include:
• Wash your hands right after coming in contact with people.
• Avoid close contact with sick people.
• Avoid bites and scratches from animals.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands.
For many Americans right now, the scale of the coronavirus crisis calls to mind 9/11 or the 2008 financial crisis—events that reshaped society in lasting ways, from how we travel and buy homes, to the level of security and surveillance we’re accustomed to, and even to the language we use.
A global, novel virus that keeps us contained in our homes—maybe for months—is already reorienting our relationship to government, to the outside world, even to each other. Some changes these experts expect to see in the coming months or years might feel unfamiliar or unsettling: Will nations stay closed? Will touch become taboo? What will become of restaurants?
But crisis moments also present opportunity: more sophisticated and flexible use of technology, less polarization, a revived appreciation for the outdoors and life’s other simple pleasures. No one knows exactly what will come, but here is our best stab at a guide to the unknown ways that society—government, healthcare, the economy, our lifestyles and more—will change.
Those $1,200 federal payments to help Americans through the coronavirus crisis have started arriving in some people's bank accounts via direct deposit. But many people will have to wait longer — and there could be pitfalls, such as debt collectors grabbing the money before you do.
Those who'll be getting checks in the mail may not see them for weeks or even months. To get the money faster, millions of people will have to provide direct-deposit account information to the IRS.
The IRS is just starting to bring portals online to let people do that. The first went live on Friday, but it's just for people who are not required to file tax returns. Another tool expected this week will allow everybody else to provide the IRS with account information for direct deposit if the IRS doesn't already have it.
Lauren Saunders, with the nonprofit National Consumer Law Center, is hoping the system will soon have multiple options to receive the money. "Hopefully they can set up direct deposit to a traditional bank account or to a prepaid account," she says. So the government could load the money onto a type of debit card that doesn't require you to have a bank account.
Millions of lower-income Americans don't have traditional bank accounts. And Saunders and other consumer advocates are worried that the people who need the money the most might not be able to get it quickly.
Begin Nora lives in Seattle, where the pandemic first hit the United States.
She's a violinist, and events were pretty quickly called off.
"I have lost all of my income," Nora says. She usually cobbles together a living by performing and teaching music at schools and elsewhere. She has quite a few different gig jobs — "at least 12 different jobs, so it's a huge confusing conglomeration of things." So she's had trouble trying to figure out how to navigate the state's website to file for unemployment.
Her husband makes just above the minimum wage at an auto-collision repair shop. His hours have been cut back, and they have three teenage kids.
"It is very scary," Nora says. "Especially since we were already... a family on a low income. We're relying on our local school food bank and school drive-up grab-and-go meals."
So the couple is really looking forward to getting that emergency money from the government. Since the two filed taxes electronically, the payment should come automatically and through direct deposit. "I am checking my bank account daily to see if it has arrived," Nora says.
But the couple has some debt. Nora's husband got a hernia, and they've been struggling to pay off an unexpected medical bill for upward of $5,000.
Of course, many people on low incomes have unpaid bills, which can bring on debt collectors. And Saunders worries that millions of Americans could get their emergency government payments snatched right out of their bank accounts.
"It happens all the time to people," says Farah Majid, a lawyer at Legal Services Alabama. She notes that debt collectors often get court judgments against people, which enables the collectors to get the money from people's banks.
If debt collectors can find money sitting in a bank account, she says, "they can just grab whatever money is in there, so it's really easy for them to collect their money that way." Some states have protections, but many allow collectors to grab large sums of money, Majid says.
And she says that when a big check comes in, such as a tax refund, collectors can pounce. So she's concerned now that collectors might be gearing up to grab these emergency payments.
"That is what really scares me," she says. "People that need this money are depending on it desperately right now, which is why the government is giving it to them, could then turn around and lose it unexpectedly and not have any options."
But there is something the government could do to try to block the debt collectors. There's already a system to protect benefits such as Social Security. Those government payments are coded in a special way.
"Banks automatically know not to let collectors grab that money," says the NCLC's Saunders."We are trying to get these stimulus payments coded in the exact same way, because they are intended for food and basic necessities, just like Social Security payments."
There's some bipartisan support for that. In the meantime, if you think debt collectors or payday lenders with access to your bank account might grab the money, advocates say you'll probably want to be vigilant about getting that money before they do. Or you could have the money sent to a different bank account, or to a prepaid card if that becomes possible, the advocates say.
There's something else to watch for beyond debt collection. Unless you get Social Security, if you didn't file tax returns in the past two years, you won't get a payment sent to you automatically. And if you did file a return but got a check sent to you in the mail, you will get the payment much more quickly by signing up with the IRS for direct deposit.
The latest information on how to do that, along with how much money you should be expecting based on your income and whether you have children, is available at this IRS webpage.
For people without a bank account who would like to open one, Saunders' nonprofit is telling people to go to joinbankon.org. That site has suggestions for ways to do that, even if you've had trouble with bank accounts in the past, so you can get your government payment more quickly.