COVID-19, also known as novel coronavirus, has sparked worldwide concern since the virus was first identified late last year in Wuhan, China.

Over the weekend, Virginia received its first confirmed cases of COVID-19. The commonwealth now has eight presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Five cases have been reported in northern Virginia, two in eastern Virginia and one in northwest Virginia.

As reports of cases edge closer and closer to the Middle Peninsula region, and people worry about what they should do, Dr. Rebekah Sensenig, Riverside Infectious Disease Specialist, says the best thing is also the simplest—wash your hands … often.

“It’s spread by getting into your eyes, your nose and your mouth, so the most important thing, of course, is hand washing, hand washing, hand washing,” she said.

“We need to make sure that we are not getting the virus on our hands into our eyes, our nose or our mouth,” Sensenig sai...