The COVID-19 Pandemic

Novel (“new”) coronavirus appeared in late 2019 and causes the deadly respiratory disease, COVID-19. We now know the novel coronavirus spreads quite easily from person to person, even when an infected person has no symptoms. The highly contagious virus spreads when infected people cough, sneeze, or even simply talk near uninfected people.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 spread undetected in the United States for several weeks, catching communities in all 50 states off guard with overflowing Emergency Rooms and ICUs, before any steps were taken to slow the spread.

Hospitals all over the country are now above capacity and their resources are spread extremely thin. Even severely ill COVID-19 patients are having trouble accessing testing kits, ventilators and the care that they need. Sadly, this means skyrocketing mortality rates among many people who could have been saved.

With no cure and no vaccine in immediate sight, the necessary steps to prevent COVID-19 from completely spreading across our country and the globe are extremely limited, but incredibly important to take for all of us. It’s up to each and every one of us to take immediate action.

The most important thing we can do right now is shelter in place, which simply means staying home. Of course, many of us still have to leave home for essential work and errands.

On April 3, 2020, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) formally recommended that all Americans wear a cloth face mask in public settings to help slow the community-based transmission of COVID-19.

Combined with social distancing and frequent hand-washing, wearing face masks in public settings—all of us—gives us the best chance to flatten the curve and stop the spread of COVID-19, once and for all.

That’s why DHVANI has committed to the monumental goal of providing a free face mask to every American.

It has become clear that people can contract and spread the COVID-19 Coronavirus without showing any symptoms for several days. It's impossible to distinguish healthy from infected individuals.

That’s why the United States Centers for Disease Control recommends that every American wear a protective face mask and use hand sanitizer at all time to help stop the spread of the virus and #ASanitizerforEveryAmerican.