There are two essential ways you can help slow the transmission of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 through the community: personal sanitation and social distancing.
By Ryan McGreal
Published March 20, 2020
There are two essential ways you can help slow the transmission of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 through the community: personal sanitation and social distancing.
The virus that causes COVID-19 is transmitted two main ways: from surfaces that are contaminated with the virus and from droplets in the air of contaminated fluid that are coughed or sneezed from someone who is infected.
The latest research suggests that the virus can survive for up to 3 hours suspended in droplets in the air, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to several days on steel, plastic and laminated surfaces.
Wash your hands frequently and vigorously. Washing your hands properly is highly effective at killing the virus. As soon as possible after you return from going outside or touching a surface that may be contaminated, wash your hands vigorously and thoroughly with water and soap for at 20-30 seconds. Wash the backs of your hands, each finger, between your fingers, under your nails and up your wrists. Completely rinse off the soap, dry your hands with a clean towel and use the towel to turn off the faucet.
Disinfect your hands with sanitizer and rub it in for 60 seconds if you don't have the option to wash your hands. Make sure the sanitizer is at least 60 percent alcohol, otherwise it is not effective. (If you do decide to make your own sanitizer, mix 3 parts of 99 percent isopropyl or rubbing alcohol with one part aloe vera gel. You can add a few drops of essential oil like lavender or tea tree to make it smell better. DO NOT use vodka or other liquor - at 80 proof / 40 percent alcohol, they are just not strong enough to kill microbes.)
Stop touching your face. Humans habitually touch our faces. The average person touches their face 15-25 times an hour. Try to notice when you're doing this and stop it. Touching a surface infected with a virus and then touching your face allows the virus to enter your body.
Disinfect frequently-touched surfaces regularly. Wiping a surface down with an alcohol-based disinfectant kills the virus within 60 seconds. Disinfect door handles, light switches, stair rails, mailbox lids, and so on.
Wear a face mask if: (a) you are taking care of someone who has or might have COVID-19, or (b) you have or think you might have COVID-19 and want to reduce the risk of spreading it by coughing and sneezing.
Wear sterile gloves if: you are taking care of someone who has or might have COVID-19 and you replace the gloves after every interaction.
Social distancing is arguably even more important than personal sanitation. The more effectively we reduce the number and intensity of interactions between people, the more we reduce the rate at which COVID-19 spreads to new people, and the better chance our medical health system has of being able to provide intensive care to everyone who needs it.
Aggressive distancing will make a massive difference in how quickly the infection spreads, and that will make a massive difference in how many people survive the infection.
It is already expected that 30-70 percent of Canadians will be infected. Let's be conservative and take the low number: that's 11.3 million people. If 15 percent of those people need hospital care, that's 1.7 million patients. And if one-third of those people need intensive care, that's over 500,000 ICU beds.
Canada only has 57,000 hospital beds in total. If those 1.7 million people who need hospitalization, including more than 500,000 people who need intensive care, all come down with COVID-19 within a short time frame, our medical system will be totally and catastrophically overwhelmed and people who need intensive care to survive will not receive it.
If you've been wondering why the government seems to be taking such extreme measures, this is why. Here is what you can do to help:
Keep at least 2 metres (6 feet) of distance from other people. In addition to lingering on surfaces, the virus can be spread through the air in droplets of fluid by coughs and sneezes. If you are outside your home, keep a minimum distance of at least 2 metres (6 feet) away from other people.
Do not congregate. Stay away from places where groups of other people are present and especially where they are closer than 2 metres in distance from one another. Wherever possible, avoid crowds.
Cancel all non-essential errands. Don't go to public places unlesss it's necessary (e.g. to pick up food, prescriptions or other essential goods and services). If you do have to go out: keep at least a 2 metre (6 foot) distance from other people, wash and disinfect your hands as soon as you can, and avoid touching your face.
Shower after work. If your job requires you to go out into public places that may be contaminated, shower as soon as you get home instead of when you wake up.
Continue to go outside. Social distancing doesn't mean locking yourself away. It's safe and healthy to go outside. Fresh air and exercise improve physical and mental health and boost your immune system. Walk the dog. Go for a walk, a hike, a run, a bike ride. If you encounter people outside your immediate family, keep at least 2 metres (6 feet) of distance. Avoid touching surfaces that might be contaminated, like playground equipment, handrails or benches. Wash your hands vigorously as soon as you return home.
Self-Isolate in your home for at least two weeks if: (a) you have just returned home from a trip, (b) you are experiencing any of the symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough, shortnesss of breath, difficulty breathing, fatigue, aches, runny nose, sore throat), or (c) you have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. Contact Telehealth Ontario at 1-866-797-0000 or your doctor or medical clinic right away for further guidance. The incubation period for COVID-19 can be as short as two days or as long as 14 days, and you may be contagious before symptoms appear, so it is essential that you isolate yourself if you are at risk of having contracted the virus in order to avoid spreading it to others.
Stay in touch with other people. Humans are fundamentally social and total isolation is literally torture. Reach out to loved ones, friends and acquaintances to connect with them. Talk to neighbours on the street while maintaining plenty of physical distance. Make phone calls and video chats, exchange emails and text messages, engage on social media, write letters (and disinfect your mailbox), check in with people you haven't heard from in a while.
Ask for help. This is a scary time and it is normal to experience feelings of fear, loneliness, anxiety, depression, anger and despair. Reach out to trusted friends and family, and contact mental health services or your employer's EAP provider or your doctor or medical clinic if you are in crisis.
Finally, it's really important to keep in mind that this is not binary. It's really a numbers game at this point. Doing a few of these things is better than doing none of them. Doing a lot of these things is better than doing a few. Doing all of these things is better still.
The more people that do more of these things more consistently, the slower this infectious disease will spread, the less overwhelmed the health care system will get and the more people will survive.
We will get through this emergency if enough of us are willing to make some personal sacrifices, work together and take care of each other.
By mdrejhon (registered) - website | Posted March 20, 2020 at 12:07:11
A trusted aggregate source to watch is https://www.worldometers.info/coronaviru...
Scroll down to the "Confirmed" section and click on the country names in the left column; And you'll see some countries (such as China) are now successfully flattening the curve, but look at the USA curve -- totally scary (as of March 20, 2020) -- especially the ultra-geometric death rate occuring in the last 7 days -- and USA stats looks scarily like the beginnings of a Italy-style curve trajectory at the moment for the states (Italy has more deaths than China now) -- if you compare the beginning parts of the graphs!
I'd embed PNG charts but I'd create a mass-panic. They ARE downright scary and it was probably (sigh) a good idea to shut down our border. If you dare to look at the graphs daily, you've been warned.
But good news: Canada has some hints of (so far) following a better trajectory that more resembles Japan or Norway which seems (as of March 20th) to be managing to begin to flatten the curve. Hopefully what we're doing will continue.
Let's keep it that way.
P.S. Make sure you have supports, family, spouse, close friends you can talk to. I've been using videophone way more. Order additional cameras delivered and put them on top of all monitors, all TVs, and make video one button press away on any of your bigger screens (whether be FaceTime, Skype, Google Video, Facebook Messenger, or all the above). Not just your phones. Video helps a lot to ease anxiety. Even if you talk to accquaintices if you don't have many friends. Also, have old spare 480p Logitech cameras in your junk drawer? Bring them back out as extra cameras or offer them to friends. Most old USB cameras still work today automatically under current OSes.
Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2020-03-20 12:23:41
By grok (registered) | Posted April 11, 2020 at 13:52:10
Everyone please keep in mind that the POINT of all this is NOT how 'wunnerful' the governments' and corporations' are, for finally responding in some half-assed, 'responsible', organized manner to this WHOLLY-AVOIDABLE Global crisis; it's how miserably these capitalist shits have responded overall in the FIRST place. Because, when you get right down to it -- this is a story of long-standing MALIGN MALFEASANCE on their part. For 4 Neoliberal 'Free Market' DECADES now. And not to mention a good measure of Malice Aforethought classwar thrown in.
We owe these fu*#ers NOTHING. Certainly not our loyalty or thanx.
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