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How Some Households Have Successfully Contained COVID-19

COVID-19 Illustration
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

A small, overcrowded house with a resident that has COVID-19 may sound like a hopeless situation, but that’s not necessarily so. Dan Winkelman, President and CEO of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation, said that he knows of a few families faced with a situation in which one of them had the disease, and the family kept it from spreading to others in their home.

“They were able to isolate them in one room. Everyone else had masks on when they shared the bathroom, and cleaned the bathroom after that person had exited. And they were able to not get sick,” Winkelman said.

Winkelman admits that this scenario is not the norm. Instead, overcrowded homes with limited facilities, which are typical in most villages, coupled with people who are not able to take these precautions, usually spread COVID-19 to others in the home as well as to the community.

Johanna Eurich's vivid broadcast productions have been widely heard on National Public Radio since 1978. She spent her childhood speaking Thai, then learned English as a teenager and was educated at a dance academy, boarding schools and with leading intellectuals at her grandparents' dinner table in Philadelphia.
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