First, the toilet paper and hand sanitizer aisles were bare. Now your boss gave you instructions to work from home, your kids’ are home from school and you can’t go out for dinner, to a movie or the mall. While it may feel extreme, these steps are being taken to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. In doing so, you’re participating in a public health strategy known as social distancing.
So you should stay at least 6 to 10 feet from anyone except your immediate family. The goal of social distancing is to reduce exposure to large crowds, like ones you’ll find at concerts, crowded bars or schools.
What is social distancing?
Social distancing is a public health practice that aims to prevent sick people from coming in close contact with healthy people in order to reduce opportunities for disease transmission. It can include large-scale measures like cancelling group events or closing public spaces, as well as individual decisions such as avoiding crowds. Social distancing is a non-pharmaceutical infection prevention and control intervention implemented to avoid/decrease contact between those who are infected with a disease causing pathogen and those who are not, so as to stop or slow down the rate and extent of disease transmission in a community. This eventually leads to decrease in spread, morbidity and mortality due to the disease
Social distancing is increasing the physical space between you and other individuals to avoid spreading illness. Because the virus is spread from person to person, the CDC recommendation is to stay at least 6 feet from others to reduce spreading COVID-19. In addition, staying away from crowds of individuals is a part of social distancing, which is why there have been so many sports, school and event cancellations, and a shift to remote working environments for individuals.
It’s important to add that this includes staying home as much as possible and not going to restaurants, bars or other public places when you can. Many businesses are closing anyway to prevent unnecessary gatherings of people.
In many US cities, there are widespread school closures, many people are now working from home and countless businesses like restaurants, bars, coffee shops, fitness studios and gyms are closing their doors in an effort to keep people at home.
All of these recommendations are meant to help foster compliance with what many public health officials say is one of the most important strategies for everyone to comply with (not just those who may have been exposed to COVID-19 or feel sick): social distancing.
Social distancing is not an easy thing to do, but it’s necessary when facing a pandemic. Given that it can feel extreme, lonely and sad to avoid people, here’s how you can do your part to reduce the spread of the virus, but still stay sane and feel connected to those you love. Remember, it’s a temporary measure that can help protect countless others (and yourself) in the long run.
Who should be doing social distancing?
COVID-19 has been labelled as a pandemic, a global outbreak of the disease. As a result, it is important for everyone to take social distancing recommendations seriously since the virus is spread mainly from close person-to-person contact.
Everyone, in everyone community across the world, should be practicing social distancing, whether you’re feel sick or feel fine. If everyone follows these orders, it will help slow the spread of coronavirus, “flatten the curve” and protect public health.
How do I practice social distancing?
The CDC defines social distancing as it applies to COVID-19 as “remaining out of congregate settings, avoiding mass gatherings, and maintaining distance (approximately 6 feet or 2 meters) from others when possible.”
This means “no hugs, no handshakes.”
It’s particularly important—and perhaps obvious—to maintain that same 6-foot distance from anyone who is demonstrating signs of illness, including coughing, sneezing, or fever.
Along with physical distance, proper hand-washing is important for protecting not only yourself but others around you—because the virus can be spread even without symptoms.
It is recommended to wash hands any time you enter from outdoors to indoors, before you eat, and before you spend time with people who are more vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19, including older adults and those with serious chronic medical conditions.
On the broader scale, a number of actions taken in recent days are designed to encourage social distancing, including:
- Schools, colleges, and universities suspending in-person classes and converting to remote online instruction
- Cities cancelling events, including sporting events, festivals, and parades
- Workplaces encouraging or mandating flexible work options, including telecommuting
- Organizations and businesses cancelling large gatherings, including conferences
- Houses of worship suspending services
What are other ways to limit the spread of disease?
- Other public health measures could include isolation and quarantine. According to the CDC’s latest guidance:
- Isolation refers to the separation of a person or people known or reasonably believed to be infected or contagious from those who are not infected in order to prevent spread of the disease. Isolation may be voluntary, or compelled by governmental or public health authorities.
- Quarantine in general means the separation of a person or people reasonably believed to have been exposed to a communicable disease but not yet symptomatic from others who have not been so exposed in order to prevent the possible spread of the disease. With COVID-19, the CDC has recommended a 14-day period to monitor for symptoms.
What’s the difference between social distancing, social isolation and quarantine?
Social distancing, isolation, and quarantine are all different practices based on the situation. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC, quarantine or self-quarantine is when someone who is well, but suspects they’ve come in close contact with someone who has the coronavirus, chooses to separate themselves from others for a period of time. This gives them a chance to monitor any potential symptoms or illness that can develop if they’ve been exposed.
Isolation is when someone totally isolates themselves from any contact with others — this can happen at a hospital or at home if the person is relatively healthy enough to fight the virus.
Quarantine is for people who are sick or present multiple symptoms in line with the coronavirus, and a doctor has instructed them to self-isolate.
How can physical distancing and self-isolation affect the pandemic?
Countries around the world are using physical distancing and self-isolation to try to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. There is currently no vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. This means that physical distancing and self-isolation are the best ways for people to keep themselves and their communities safe. These measures will help prevent people from contracting the virus and prevent them from passing it on to others. By slowing the spread of the virus, public health officials are aiming to ensure that healthcare systems have enough staff, equipment, and beds to care for people who fall seriously ill.
This is especially important for people at higher risk of developing COVID-19, including:
- older adults
- people with autoimmune conditions such as lupus
- people with respiratory conditions such as asthma
Social Distancing Tips
Home
- Stay at least six feet away from others, especially those show symptoms of illness.
- Keep your normal daily routines and schedules.
- Exercise every day if possible.
- Avoid social gatherings of 10 or more people.
- Connect with family and friends by phone, face chat or other online communication device.
- Replace hugs and handshakes with elbow or foot bumping, a head nod, a slight bow, or other no-touch greeting.
- Being away from others can be stressful. Manage stress with deep breathing, yoga, meditation, laughter or other activities.
- Stream movies to watch.
Work
- Work from home and attend meetings by phone or video conferencing.
- Cancel or postpone large group meetings and optional travel.
Going Outside
- Take a walk or go on a hike, but keep at least six feet of distance from others.
- Sit outside to get fresh air and sunshine.
- If you order food from a restaurant, use drive-through, pickup or delivery options. Wash your hands when you get home. Transfer food to your own plates and recycle the containers. Wash your hands before you eat.
- Avoid traveling that is not absolutely necessary.
- Do not visit nursing homes, retirement or senior centres, or long-term care facilities.
- Avoid medical and dental appointments that are not absolutely necessary.
- Use delivery or pick-up options at the grocery store or go to the store at off-peak times when it is not busy.
This article was brought to you by Safe Space. Safespace is itself a provider a safety technologies and provides related services as required by its customers.
SafeSpace: A Safety System that Qualifies, Secures and Monitors travellers for Zero Contagion during Travel and beyond. It believes that there are 4 key was in which social distancing can be made a success or followed. They are as follows:
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