Social Distancing is the term which has been quite heard in the past few days in relation to the recent alarming situation globally. This is found to be the only means of preventing the coronavirus from further spreading in the mass till now.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), one should maintain at least 1 metre (3 feet) distance between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing because when someone coughs or sneezes, they spray small liquid droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain the virus. If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, including the COVID-19 virus if the person coughing has been infected.
How does the virus spread?
-Direct close contact with a person while they are infected or in the 24 hours before their symptoms appeared
-Close contact with a person with a confirmed infection who is coughing or sneezing
-Touching objects or surfaces (such as door handles or tables) contaminated from a cough or sneeze from a person with confirmed infection, and then touching your mouth or face
-A person with travel history is more likely to be a carrier for the virus
What can we do?
-First of all, it is our responsibility to be safe and not to infect even others. We have to maintain the basic hygiene.
-Staying away from people if we are sick. In the current COVID-19 scenario stay more than 1 meter from people who are coughing or sneezing.
-When at home and if you are sick, ensure you are inside your room – that is the most important thing you can do.
-Practicing good hand hygiene and sneeze/cough hygiene.
-Washing hands frequently with soap and water, before and after eating, cooking and going to the toilet.
-Covering our nose and mouth while coughing and sneezing, disposing off tissues, and using alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
-Regularly disinfection of high touch surfaces, such as tables, kitchen floor, and tables and doorknobs.
-Visiting shops sparingly and trying to buy more items at one go, rather than frequently going outside, though we are not supposed to buy entirely the market making food items unavailable.
-The packages coming from outside or from online shopping should be kept as such for at least one day without touching and the package should be cleaned with alcohol based sanitizer before opening it.
-Stocking the necessary medicines especially critical medicines for elderly persons.
-Avoiding any kind of outsider like newspaper, milkman, domestic help at least for these few days for the sake of both sides.
-Strict no-no to any kind of social gathering.
Apart from these we should keep in mind certain things such as:
-We must practice pranayama and asanas like uttiyasana, matsasana to boost up our immunity.
-We must take deep breath to soothe our mind.
-As most of us are working from home nowadays, we must maintain our time management accordingly, otherwise our body clock will be disturbed.
-We may nurture our hobbies like reading books or listening to music to build up positivity within us.
-We may try different recipes at home involving nutritious food items to make it healthy as well as to reduce boredom.We can try making dry roasted millet chips or sesame-dates-nuts ladoo etc which are nutritious and can be stored too.
-We must not panic and must not spread rumours about the disease without getting any information from any authentic source.
What is self-quarantine or self-isolation?
People who have been exposed to the new coronavirus and who are at risk for coming down with COVID-19 might practice self-quarantine. Health experts recommend that self-quarantine lasts 14 days. Two weeks provides enough time for them to know whether or not they will become ill and be contagious to other people.
In addition to social distancing steps, this involves:
-Strictly staying at home and not going out at all.
-Staying away from other people in your home. Try to keep at least 3 steps (2 metres) away from others, particularly people over 70 or with a long-term condition.
-Sleeping alone is suggested.
We, after all, evolved as a species that thrives on human connection and cooperation.Thus it is high time for all of us to be safe and to make the world a safer place.