I Have Joined The Ranks of The Unemployed; Will I Join The Ranks of The Sick?

Since the country began shutting down in earnest two weeks ago because of the Coronavirus nearly 10 million people in the United States have filed for unemployment insurance benefits.

Next week I will join these ranks.

I received a call this afternoon from my manager at Forrest Solutions informing me that I have been laid off from my job at the request of the client. I immediately went online to apply for unemployment benefits through the New York Department of Labor. After nearly two hours, I was informed I would not be able to apply until Tuesday. I will cross that bridge when it comes. I do have one more full paycheck coming my way a week from today. There is also a stimulus check of $1,200 although the IRS has stated this could take until August to complete dissemination. Lord knows what the country will look like in four months from now much less four weeks.

Needless to say I am not surprised at this development. One cannot ignore what is going around us. After all when I was sent home from work on March 18th I could not rule out the possibility that I would never return. My manager did say the door was left open to be hired back once things settled down as our layoff did not concern our performance. But this settling down process is far more likely to take months rather than days or weeks. Even when it does settle down things will never be the same. There will be a lot more workers working from home or remotely. Of course, some jobs don't lend themselves to those conditions. As such some of us might be out of work a lot longer than others. Given that I was unemployed for 8 months in 2017-2018, it would not surprise me if I am out of work for a longer period this time around. But unemployment isn't the only issue at hand.

It doesn't help matters that I am in New York City. As of this writing, there are more than 100,000 Coronavirus cases in the Empire State with nearly 3,000 deaths accounting for nearly half the Coronavrius deaths in the country. In New York City, more than 10,000 people have been hospitalized and more than 1,500 have died. Those numbers are going to go up. Way up.

Will I join the ranks of the sick?

I've had a cough for the past several days. Dad wanted me to go to CityMD and I would have gone today, but I've now lost my health insurance. Of course, even if I still had my health insurance, it is unlikely CityMD or anyone else would test me anyway. Chances are I would be considered among the "worried well".

There is a vacant apartment in our building and Dad is checking to see with the landlord if I can move in there temporarily as a precaution. We will see if this a feasible option.

Despite my job setback, I know full well that I am still in a far better situation than those who are in a hospital bed with a ventilator let alone the people who have already lost their lives. The same can be said for my Dad. I can only hope it stays that way.