The coronavirus pandemic is changing life in Boston, and has already had a noticeable impact on how we work, learn and play on a day-to-day basis. WGBH Morning Edition host Joe Mathieu spoke with Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu about how she's trying to help residents during and after the outbreak. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.

Joe Mathieu: I know you had a stay at home challenge going last week. Now the mayor has issued a curfew and request to cover our faces. Are you concerned about people following these guidelines?

Councilor Michelle Wu: We're now approaching the critical period. Within the next two weeks is when the cases and hospitalizations may start to peak in Boston and really test our health care capacity. So it's difficult because this is about every single person realizing their actions are so intimately connected to the well-being of everyone else, but we really need each person of all ages, all backgrounds, all parts of the city to think about how much they are affecting their potentially vulnerable neighbors or family members and really practice that physical distancing, stay at home when ever possible and make sure that you are doing your part to limit the spread.

Mathieu: I know you have a couple of young children at home, Councilor. How's it been going the last couple of weeks?

Wu: It's been an experience. My sons are two and five right now. So on one hand, we're very lucky that they are just taking it in stride as anything, and the school department is doing a great job of making sure that they're connected with teachers and on digital play sessions with their classmates. But it's pretty intense being around all the time. I realized the other day it was hitting them much more than I thought because they were playing house, but under this situation, house was two separate houses set up on opposite sides of the room and they were shouting to each other.

Mathieu: I may play that with my family later today. I appreciate the idea, Councilor. How are you handling — if you don't mind me asking you personally — things like going grocery shopping [and] going to the pharmacy. The things we are allowed to do. Are you still going about that in the normal way just by covering your face?

Wu: No, we are really trying hard, just as an individual in my household, to be very serious about that distancing. I live with my mom and she's in the downstairs unit of our two-family house and she's in that older American, higher risk category. So we are trying to limit wherever possible going out no more than once a week if we can, and doing what we can to just send my husband. He goes and then washes immediately when he comes back [and] disinfects everything. It's a lot for people to do because it also means that the lines at stores are longer [and] the waits are more difficult. But many stores are doing things like scheduling pickup, so you can go online, put in the items that you hope to get, if they're available. Many of them are running low on stock, but when they're available, then you schedule time to go pick it up and it's much quicker, in and out.

Mathieu: And you've put forth in order for a hearing on the Council to address inequities that could be made worse during an economic recovery with regard to housing and a number of other factors. Councilor, you're worried about some people, I presume, being left behind.

Wu: We know historically from crises that when there is a rush to address an economic situation without intention, the same communities that all throughout the year experience inequities and injustices are the first to bear the costs of that and the first to be left behind again. So I've been very proud to partner with my colleagues Councilor Ricardo Arroyo and Councilor Julia Mejia on a hearing order to plan for an equitable recovery. We know this is much more than a public health crisis [and] that the social and economic impacts will last far beyond when the public health emergency ends. So we need to be there supporting our local small business owners, our communities of color [and] residents who have been historically marginalized so that there can be an equitable recovery, so everyone comes out of this together.

Mathieu: Has that been scheduled already, or is it not possible to schedule one right now?

Wu: We are continuing councilor business as usual, but it's all virtual. It's all through Zoom. So our hearings and meetings are happening as we have been. Our work has tended to focus more on COVID-19 just given the priority, but we have not picked a date yet and hope to do so very shortly.