As stay-at-home constraints begin to ease, people are starting to venture out of their homes, and some are even reverting to work. However, that doesn’t mean that the virus has gone away—or that there is a vaccine or an antidote. So how can you stay safe and healthy while slowly returning to some semblance of normal life?
First and foremost, stay the course. By this time, we may feel like experts on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines set up to protect ourselves and prevent the spread of the coronavirus. However, these recommendations bear repeating.
Practice Social Distancing
According to the CDC, the best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to the virus. COVID-19 spreads from person to person through respiratory droplets that are produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks. Even a person without symptoms can spread the virus, so it’s important to continue practicing social distancing— stay six feet apart from other people and avoid crowded places and mass gatherings.
Continue To Wash Your Hands
Yes, it would help if you continue washing your hands often, especially after you’ve been in a public place or after you’ve blown your nose, coughed or sneezed. Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. And last, but not least, avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
Continue Cover Your Mouth and Nose
Everyone should wear a cloth face cover—whether it’s a mask, bandana or homemade face covering—when out in public and it is difficult to maintain social distancing measures, including trips to the grocery store or pharmacy. As recommended by current CDC guidelines, there is no need for a surgical mask or N-95 respirator. Save these critical supplies for health care workers and first responders.
Ensure your mask fits properly. Your mask should cover your mouth and nose and fit snugly, but comfortably, against the side of your face. Although your mask should include multiple layers, it should allow for breathing without restriction.
Just as important, when you return home, remove your mask with care, avoiding your eyes, nose and mouth, and wash your mask regularly.
Continue Wearing Gloves When in Public
“While wearing gloves when out in public might make you feel safer, if they are not used perfectly, they could easily get you sick,” said Brandie Anderson, RN, MPH, CIC, infection prevention director at Banner – University Medical Center Tucson. “Think of touching germs on a surface as similar to touching red paint. If you’re wearing gloves and you touch red paint (the germs), then everything else you touch with those gloves will be contaminated with the red paint (germs), including your cell phone, car keys, eyes, nose or mouth.”
The safest thing to do is to wash your hands thoroughly or use hand sanitizer before you touch your personal items or face.
Maintain Healthy Habits to Boost Your Immune System
As we venture out, it is important to keep our immune system healthy to help reduce the risk of illness. Keep up that exercise routine, get plenty of sleep, make sure to drink enough water and eat a healthy diet.se, eyes or mouth.” By practicing all these recommendations, they work together to reduce the risk of spreading the virus to ourselves and each other.