Anyone listening to a police scanner serving the local rescue squads will have heard those three words with increasing frequency over the past few weeks.

“The patient presents with elevated temperature and difficulty breathing. Meets the criteria,” a rescue squad member out on a call might say as she alerts the hospital of a new arrival headed their way.

She doesn’t need to say exactly what criteria the patient meets. The shorthand, sadly, has become all too familiar.

COVID-19 is making its presence felt locally.

Numbers are surging nationwide, as predicted, as more gatherings move indoors and not everyone is practicing the basic steps necessary to slow the spread—frequent hand washing, maintaining at least six feet of distance from one another and wearing a mask in public.

Last week, governors in both Virginia and North Carolina instituted measures designed to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, including more stringent mask requirements, modified Stay at Home orders and other restrictions.

While some may debate the effectiveness of any individual measure in stopping or slowing the spread, the overall message conveyed by these actions is a simple, straightforward one—we all need to take this virus more seriously.

All of us have grown weary of restrictions that are inconvenient, frustrating and may seem arbitrary at times. We just want to get back to “normal” in a post-COVID world, whatever that new normal may look like. But, for that to happen, we have to hold on for just a little bit longer. As vaccines are rolling now, just as Christmas arrives, but it will take months for that to have an impact.

This virus will do what all viruses have done: find new hosts to continue to spread and thrive. And this one is particularly good at that. What each of us must do is give it as little an opportunity to do that. It’s a responsibility we all must embrace.

Otherwise, the next time the words “meets the criteria” are broadcast over the police scanner, the rescue squad person may be talking about you.