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Earlier this week, Gov. Ralph Northam issued Executive Order No. 53, which closed all schools for the remainder of the academic year and shut the doors of most non-essential businesses. The actual text of the order is four pages long, but boils down to a very simple message: just stay home.

Grocery stores, medical offices and a few other essential industries are allowed to remain open to the public. For the safety of all our health care professionals, as well as those working to ensure our supply chain remains intact, we at The Tidewater News urge everyone in Western Tidewater and beyond to do exactly that: just stay home. Bear in mind that health care professionals cannot just stay home. They’re on the front lines of combatting the coronavirus pandemic, and in doing so, are putting themselves and their families at an increased risk of infection every day as more COVID-19 cases emerge and supplies of personal protective equipment dwindle. We owe it to them, and to the people restocking the shelves at our local Food Lions, to do all we can to minimize the risk of coronavirus spreading any further. That means staying home.

We could go on and on with words of thanks for our doctors, nurses and other professionals who are putting their lives on the line in our hospitals, but as the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. To those who remain employed full-time during this crisis, count yourselves lucky, and work from home or another remote location where you can stay socially distanced from others. If you do need to interact with coworkers in person, practice the six-foot rule of social distancing. We can beat this crisis if we all do our part.