President Trump unveils new COVID-13 guidelines

Yesterday, President Donald Trump unveiled his Coronavirus Guidelines For America for the next 15 days during his White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing.

The two-page document included the routine hygienic recommendation of washing hands, sneezing into your elbow and avoiding touching one's face.

The guidelines include instructions such as avoid social gatherings of 10 or more people, avoid eating at restaurants and food courts as well as drinking in bar establishments, not to visit nursing facilities unless to provide critical assistance and to avoid discretionary travel.

The President's instructions also recommended utilizing delivery, pick-up and drive-thru options for fast food or dining. Many states like Illinois have already mandated that restaurants no longer serve dine-in clientele.

The President said his administration was doing "a very good job under the confines of what we are dealing with". He praised the way people working on suppressing the virus outbreak have come together to work hand-in-hand.

"It seems to me, if we do a really go job, we'll not only hold death down to a level much lower than the other way had we not done a good job," he said during the briefing while taking questions from reporters.

According to the COVID-19 Surveillance Dashboard yesterday, there are 106 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 in Illinos. The are distributed throughout the state as follows: Cook 76; Lake 6; DuPage 5; Sangamon 4; Kane 3; McHenry 2; St. Clair 2; Winnebago 1; Peoria 1; Whiteside 1; Cumberland 1; Champaign 1; Clinton 1; Will 1; and Woodford with 1 case.

The second part of the document focus on America taking 15 days to the spread of the virus.

This page tells Americans to stay home if they feel sick and do not go to work. It also asks that if someone in your home test positive for the virus, that the entire household must stay home. No work, school or play and afflicted persons should contact a medical professional.

When asked how long Americans will have to endure the disruption in everyday life, President Trump responded that it was his favorite question and that he asked his team of experts that all the time.

"It seems to me, if we do a really go job, we'll not only hold death down to a level much lower than the other way had we not done a good job," he said. "People are talk about July, August (or) something like that. So it could be in that period of time."

He praised those who are taking common sense measures to avoid spreading the disease to the elderly and vulnerable population in the country.

"People are self-containing to a large extent," said. "We look forward to the day when we can get back to normal."

Village of St. Joseph office closed to the public until further notice

While there has been only one confirmed case of the Coronavirus in Champaign County, following the lead of government offices around the state, village officials have closed their physical office in St. Joseph to the public.

There was no indication on the village website when they might reopen at this time.

Residents can, however, still interact with the village and leaders by phone or email during normal business hours. Staff members will be available to answer phones, respond to email and process all payments as usual.

Sewer payments are asked to be made by using the night box on the left hand side of the building. While checks and money orders are the preferred methods as they leave a paper trail to verify receipt, cash payments will be accepted by the village and a receipt will be mailed as soon as possible.

For more information contact the village office by phone at (217) 469-7371. Questions or concerns can be emailed to office manager Julie Hendrickson at julie.quednau@stjosephillinois.org or Debbie Routh at debbie.routh@stjosephillinois.org.