Coronavirus Impacts People With Disability And Their Caregivers
We know that older adults are most at risk of dying from the coronavirus. But there’s another population that could potentially be hard hit by the virus: people with disabilities and their caregivers.
Gompers is a day program that serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Despite the coronavirus outbreak, staff here continue to come to work, and there’s no social distancing here.
Marc Jacoby is the CEO of Gompers. "That's a little hard to do when you're in a program like the ones that we provided, our staff is so one to one with the individuals that we serve," he said. "They require assistance with beading, they acquire assistance with toileting."
Alexis Sanchez works directly with the members who come to Gompers. So besides that potential risk, there’s another fear — Sanchez is a minimum wage worker.
"It’s scary to have to be home for two weeks without having a paycheck come in because it’s not easy when you don’t have a good pay," she said.
The number of coronavirus cases continues to go up in Arizona. As of Monday, there were 18 confirmed cases.
