By Joshua Huff, sports editor
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Surgeon General said that the coronavirus outbreak is set to worsen this week as people continue to disregard guidelines and orders enacted throughout the country.
Dr. Jerome Adams spoke on the TODAY show early Monday morning and warned that people, predominantly younger individuals, are not heeding orders placed by federal and local governments to stay home and practice social distancing.
“I want America to understand this week, it’s going to get bad,” Adams said. “Right now, there are not enough people out there who are taking this seriously.”
Videos and photos on social media have shown young people flocking to beaches in Florida and California as they continue to ignore rules to stay at home as the country struggles to halt the spread of the virus.
“Everyone needs to act as if they have the virus right now,” Adams said. “So, test or no test. We need you to understand you could be spreading it to someone else. Or you could be getting it from someone else, stay at home.”
This follows the Jefferson County Department of Health added upon its mandatory closure list on Sunday night as non-businesses have taken it upon themselves to determine whether they are essential or not.
The JCDH added barbershops, hair salons and non-essential retail stores to its list of businesses that are to shutter their doors on Monday.
Health officer Dr. Mark Wilson said late Sunday night that he has ordered the closures be in place by 5 p.m. on Monday, March 23, 2020.
“This is a matter of life and death,’’ Wilson said in a video posted to Twitter.
Wilson added that by Monday at 5 p.m. all non-essential retail stores are ordered to close. That order does not include grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, hardware and building supply, technology and office supply.
The Jefferson County Department of Health announced this past Thursday that all non-essential businesses and services will be closed for the foreseeable future due to the risk of infection by the coronavirus.
The order went into effect on Friday at 5 p.m.
The response is an effort to curtail the continued spread of the virus and to protect people, as well as to protect businesses that remain essential.
“The other important point is that we’re not going to ventilator our way out of this problem. We’re not going to treat our way out of this problem,” Adams added. “The way you stop the spread of an infectious disease like this is with mitigation measures and preventing people from getting it in the first place.”