The D.C. area now has confirmed cases of coronavirus. Stay safe everyone!

The year 2020 has been about Covid-19, or the coronavirus that originally broke out in Wuhan, China. Currently, over 100,000 people are confirmed to have the virus. Yes, most of the affected are in China and Korea, but western countries like Italy, France and Germany also have many cases. The United States has at least 400 cases, but we haven’t heard of a confirmed one in the D.C. area until this past weekend.

On Saturday, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser confirmed the District’s first cases. And it was also announced that a marine stationed at Fort Belvoir, Va. also contracted coronavirus after an international trip.

The news comes just days after Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced that there were three cases in Montgomery County, Md. And if that weren’t enough, at least one person with coronavirus attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in Prince George’s County, Md. last week — but that person wasn’t symptomatic then...

Concerning stuff, but I felt that this was inevitable. The virus was coming to the D.C. area, given that our area is the most global area in the world, at least in my opinion.

A lot of you go out and about to events throughout the DMV. And many of you go to public events like Wizards games — and there will be one tonight. Though the NBA hasn’t cancelled games, I can definitely sympathize if you are concerned about getting the virus while going to a game or just going out in public.

And for what it’s worth, even the NBA put out a memo to players on how to potentially minimize their exposure to the virus. High fives are now discouraged, just fist bumps, in an article Candace Buckner and Cindy Boren wrote earlier this week in The Washington Post.

I’m no doctor or CDC employee. And though I too, am concerned about Covid-19, or that my elderly mother will contract it not too long after my dad passed away two years ago, I’m also not going to simply hide in a bunker. The real world today just doesn’t allow it, as Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone wrote last Monday.

The most important thing as Dickinson, or the CDC itself writes, is to avoid being too close to sick people, wash your hands vigorously for 20 or more seconds and disinfect highly touched surfaces regularly.

Yes, the coronavirus has killed many people. But if you are reasonably healthy and/or aren’t elderly, your chances of passing away are very low. Most deaths have involved the elderly and/or people with other health conditions. That’s something important to keep in mind while we’re still trying to figure this all out and whether this is deadlier than the common flu, which killed over 20,000 people since last October.

The Wizards still have several more home games before the end of the regular season. And I get that people may have second thoughts about going, not because of Washington’s performance on the court — but the coronavirus itself.

If you are wondering what I will do, I will continue to live my daily life and go to games. But I will certainly take more precautions like what the CDC recommended and hope you do too. I certainly respect anyone’s decision to stay home to limit exposure, but at the same time, I also don’t think that our area should overly panic, provided that you are not elderly and/or prone to getting sick.

In any case, stay safe everyone, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekends.