Corona Virus (Covid-19) – How to protect ourselves, and others – easy and simple

Neither I am a healthcare professional nor a provider of any such services. However, key points of the following information have been gathered from authentic sources of Public Health and I am just trying to explain the same in a simpler and easier way.

Public health officials have repeatedly shared important information about the actions we can take to protect ourselves from COVID-19 and help slow the spread of the virus. These include avoiding non-essential travel, following proper hygiene techniques and practicing social distancing.

Let’s talk about the above one by one:

1. Social Distancing/Physical distancing

What does it mean: It means to maintain a safe distance from other individuals in a social setting. It means making changes to our everyday routine to minimize close contact with other people. This includes adopting proper physical distancing techniques outside our homes and at our workplace. This includes workspaces as well as shared space like lunchrooms and meeting areas.

How do we do social distancing: When we are meeting or coming across other individuals, we should avoid making a physical contact and should try to keep a distance of at least 6 feet from each other

Why social/physical distancing is needed: Most common way Corona Virus is believed to spread is thru someone’s mouth. When a person coughs, sneezes or even talks small droplets of his/her saliva come out invisibly or visibly. If the person is already infected these droplets may contain the Corona Virus. Through research it has been found that the reach of these droplets is less than 6 feet.

Benefits of social/physical distancing: Social distancing, also known as physical distancing, is proven to be one of the most effective ways to reduce the spread of illness during an outbreak. When two persons are 6 feet or more apart from each other saliva droplets coming out of their mouth would not be able to reach the other people so chances of corona virus being transferred from one person to other become very less.

2. Proper hygiene techniques

What does it mean: It means keeping us, things we use, things around us and everything else clean. It also means that home and workspace cleanliness should be maintained in addition to regular personal hygiene practices like washing our hands, keeping hands away from our face and coughing and sneezing into a tissue or the inside of our elbow.

How do we keep things clean: Best and most important part of keeping clean is keeping our hands clean by washing them as often as possible or at least before eating or drinking anything and as soon as we come back from outside. Hands should be washed using water and regular soap. Apply soap on hands and count to 30 while rubbing hands before rinsing the soap with water. If water and soap are not available commonly available disinfectants can be used. It’s also important to maintain a clean home, workspace and everything else clean. Keeping surfaces free of dust, moisture, clutter and disinfecting items that are regularly touched is also needed.

Why: Most germs including bacteria and virus live and grow in dirty and moist surfaces and environment. By keeping things clean we avoid providing germs, bacteria and virus a suitable environment to live and grow. To do almost everything we use our hands, when our hands touch dirty or infected surfaces or other people, Corona virus get transferred to our hands. But for Corona virus to negatively affect us it needs to reach inside our body, which happens only when we take our infected hands to our mouth, nose, eyes or ears. By washing our hands properly, we kill the harmful germs, bacteria or any other types of viruses, including Corona Virus, before they enter our body and make us sick.

Benefit: By keeping everything clean we do not let harmful germs, bacteria and virus to live and grow. By washing hands, we reduce chances of letting these viruses, including Corona Virus, getting inside our body and making us sick. By coughing or sneezing into a tissue or into our elbows we ensure that we do not let the virus spread from us to others.

3. Avoid unnecessary travel

What does it mean: It means staying inside our homes as much as possible and going out and travel when it is really necessary.

How to avoid unnecessary travel: We avoid unnecessary travel by staying inside our homes. Do not go out to shopping malls, parks or other public places. Do not use public transport to go to other parts of the city or to other cities or to other countries. We should come out or travel only when something very important need to be done and should return to our homes as soon as we are done.

Why: Going out of our homes, visiting public places and unnecessary travel help spreading Corona virus.

Benefit: By staying inside our homes and by avoiding visiting public places we reduce coming across other people and our interaction with them. When we do not meet other people chances of spreading Corona virus from one person to another become very less.

4. Follow Public Health’s advise

Remember, we are not professionals but people at the Public Health Department are. They know what they are doing and what is best for us. In addition to going back to Allah and praying our best bet is:

–  Follow what Publics health says, and all above

–  Stay away from others if we are sick

–  Stay away from sick people

–  Avoid referring to or spreading unconfirmed news (rumors)

This is a collective responsibility and we can be safe if all of us collectively follow all above, as the Public Health says, “Don’t be afraid of Corona, fight back”.

For details, please click here that provides tips about how you can incorporate good physical distancing practices into your daily routine. As always, thank you for your efforts to protect yourself and those around you from the spread of COVID-19.

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Babar Saeed

bsaeed@yahoo.com

March 28, 2020