Loudoun Now
In the early days of March, Loudoun leaders started gearing up the public response to a new virus that was sweeping the globe from its origins in a city in central China. While warning COVID-19 was a serious public health threat, few then could envision the life-changing impacts the battle would bring.
Most remarkable about those early days is what wasn’t known.
In the first public briefings on the new coronavirus, Loudoun’s Public Health director reported the latest direction from the national and international authorities, including that residents should not make a run on medical masks that would be needed by healthcare workers but would provide little protection to the general public. At the time, authorities believed the virus was primarily spread by contaminated surfaces, not through the air. There was no test available to know who had been infected and no treatment established.
COVID-19 Case data for Fairfax County Health District – Current Week, Dec. 6-12.
Since March, healthcare workers at Reston Hospital Center, like their counterparts elsewhere at county, state and national levels, as well as globally, have fought relentlessly, risking their own lives to treat and save their coronavirus patients. More often than not, during these past nine months, the patients recovered and went home to their families, but many died. Like other healthcare workers, those at Reston Hospital did something to control their negative emotions. They strengthened their resolve, believing, holding onto hope, that circumstances would improve even in the face of adversity.