It behoves me to point out that the situation out of doors grows more dangerous by the day. The number of infected people is rising exponentially, as we are in the early stages of the epidemic. There will be twice as many infected in a few days' time. And twice as many as that a few days later. People can spread the disease pre-symptomatically, or even asymptomatically (before they get symptoms, or when the disease is so mild they do not have symptoms).
You do not want to get infected now. There is an incubation period of a few days (I have seen a figure of an average of six days). It then apparently takes about eight days from the onset of symptoms for your condition to deteriorate (if you are not fortunate enough to escape the serious disease). Therefore, if you are infected now, you can expect you will not be presenting to the emergency room for another two weeks. What provision of care will be able to be provided to you in two weeks' time? Probably a much worse one than at present. You could be spending weeks in intensive care if you can get to intensive care. If your condition takes a downturn, then they might deem that there is someone more likely to benefit in your stead.
I have been trying to avoid going out of doors at all costs. I have had some food deliveries, but a lot of items I ordered did not show up because of panic buying by others stripping supermarket shelves. I have an office job and we have all been told to work from home. Going out for food might be the only reason I have to go out, but I am not relishing it, given reports of scenes at local supermarkets, and the fact that I have some risk factors for the serious illness.
I managed to buy a plastic face shield on Amazon, which should be delivered shortly. There is some criticism of the effectiveness of PPE for the general public by, particulalry western, health authorities. However, the official information is nevertheless that the disease is spread primarily through projected respiratory droplets from coughing and sneezing. Therefore a face shield that covers your eyes, nose and mouth (not a surgical mask) would have to make a difference to your level of risk. It will also stop you unconsciously touching your face. If transmission is truly airborne (not requiring respiratory droplets) then the shield will be less effective of course. Doubt has been cast officially on this disease being airborne, although some studies have claimed it is. Some people might be airborne spreaders ('super-spreaders') and others not.
I also have disposable nitrile gloves and hand sanitizer bottles that I can refill from a larger pump bottle which I bought before the epidemic became significant. I also have some touch screen styluses, which mean I can use my phone when wearing the gloves (touch screens don't work when you are wearing nitrile gloves).
Medics are going to run out of PPE shortly. They are reliant upon a stock of disposable PPE which is changed multiple times per shift. There are so many health workers that no stockpile is sufficient to last throughout a lengthy epidemic. They are probably going to have to revert to some form of non-disposable PPE, which is probably not as effective, but at least will last.
