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Marlen Miranda juggles three bags of groceries as she peers through the screen door of an apartment in Kerman.
Esther Velarde, 92, comes to the door. Miranda tells her she’s not allowed to enter the house for safety reasons so she leaves the bags filled with milk, eggs, beans and other groceries on her doorstep. The pandemic, Velarde tells Miranda, has taken a toll on her mental health.
“There are days when I feel so bad that I don’t open the door for nobody,” she says.
In addition to her age, Velarde has several health conditions, including arthritis, that make her a high risk candidate for catching COVID.