“Essential”

By Makayla Secrist staff writer

School’s closed. Places like Minnesota, Colorado, and California have been officially put under “lock down.” Nonessential workers are not permitted to leave their homes apart from “essential” business.

Besides the obvious healthcare, what is considered an “essential” business? According to Iowa.gov, essential services include “Healthcare providers, Law enforcement, Fire & EMS personnel, Long Term Care personnel, Residential Support Facility personnel, and Public Health & Emergency Management personnel.” Not included specifically were grocers, gas stations, retail workers, and truckers.

The Iowa website also included several guidelines to business that are remaining open during the outbreak. Including which employees need to remain at home or be kept from working all together.

Bradley Hatfield has been working at Dollar General as a Lead Sales Associate for about two and a half years. As a retail and grocer store employee he falls under the “essential” title during the pandemic of COVID-19.

“Right now Dollar General is taking a few precautions to help keep not only the staff, but the customers safe,” said Hatfield, “We are enforcing a six foot social distancing rule, we have begun disinfecting every item a customer could touch (Ie carts, cooler doors, registers, etc) regularly with disinfectant and Lysol wipes.”

Hatfield also goes on to explain that the staff deep cleans the bathrooms and mops the floor with disinfectant solution each night. He said there is also talk about implementing mandatory staff gloves and masks later on.

“Some of the stranger customers are actually doing the opposite of protecting themselves. I’ve got customers that are screaming ‘Don’t stay inside its all a hoax the demos are just trying to control us and take our guns!'” said Hatfield. “Don’t be stupid people, don’t make this political. Fact check everything you hear about this, if you think this is just some ploy or whatever you’re part of the problem with it spreading so bad.”

Brooklynn McDanel is another individual still working through the pandemic in an essential job. She is a housekeeping aid that has been working at Accura Health Care since November of last year. “We have done a lock down on our felicity so only employees come into our building,” said McDanel.

Employees of Accura Health Care are also required to have their temperatures taken as they enter the building, answer questions about their current health and where they have been, and sanitize everything the residents touch every thirty minutes. Staff also only allow 10 people in the dining area at a time during meal times and keep all residents six feet apart at all times.

While it may seem extreme, most of the residents at Accura are considered “high risk” individuals should they contract the virus.

“[COVID-19] has limited where we can go and what we can do.” said McDanel. “With almost everything being shut down, my boyfriend is now out of work and we have gone from a two income house hold to a one income and it’s been tough. We can’t go and see our families when we want to and if we do I might not be able to go back to work because I could get my residents sick.”

On the note of missing her family, McDanel makes the final comment, “Hopefully this will be all over soon so my residents can see and huge their families. Its painful to see them with their heads down because they miss there families.”

Remember that the whole country is in this together. Stay safe.