While most businesses remain closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus supermarkets have been considered an essential business and continue operating under certain guidelines.
Dr. Nicole Saphier, a Fox News medical contributor, has provided some tips to stay safe while going grocery shopping for essentials like food and medicine.
“America’s Newsroom” host Sandra Smith asked Saphier if people should stop going to the grocery store altogether. Saphier said, “I have a hard time responding to that.”
She continues, “Thousands of people are on ventilators now and this is a big week for people because some of these people have been on ventilators for multiple weeks now and this is when we’re either going to see people dying or people coming off of the ventilators and recovering. And so they’re trying to keep as many people out of the hospitals as possible because … the hospitals are saying they only have a few ventilators left.”
“We don’t want more people on the ventilators this week. We need to care for the people who are already there. That’s why they are saying try to stay in,” she added.
Even though grocery stores across the U.S. have safety measures in place, officials still recommend cutting back on grocery visits over the next couple of weeks.
During a press conference on Saturday, White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx said, “The next two weeks are extraordinarily important. This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe.”
“If you need to go the grocery store absolutely go to the grocery store, but please please please consider wearing a mask, make sure you are washing your hands multiple times,” Saphier recommended. “Some people tend to wear gloves and then think that they’re OK and they forget that they’ve touched things and then they touch their face and that’s how they get infected.”
Saphier urged people to follow social distancing rules while inside the store. She also recommended calling ahead of time to see how busy the store is at that time.
