Okay. Next is talking about what we can do to prevent spread. And the top thing you can do as you’ve heard over and over again is good hand hygiene. So what is good hand hygiene? It means washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and you really should count out 20 seconds. In our office, we actually have a 30-second protocol in place to be extra cautious. Hand sanitizer’s only recommended for situations when you cannot wash your hands and it has to be greater than 60% alcohol. Yes, I am aware that you cannot get hand sanitizer anywhere right now. It will be back in stock and this is also for those of you who actually still have some hand sanitizer.
The next most important thing is making sure to not touch your face while you’re in public, especially avoiding rubbing your eyes, your nose, touching your mouth. That is how the virus gains access and entry to you. It has to gain access through one of your mucus membrane, so really avoiding touching your face is important. Now, there are general recommendations to prevent community spread by using social distancing. So that really means if you don’t have to go out in public, especially meetings in large groups, don’t. And if you do, try to maintain anywhere from a three to six foot kind of space between you and the next person.
And that’s because if you do cough, droplets can spread up to six feet, and actually there are some reports of even up to 10 feet. But anyway, three to six feet is the current kind of recommendation to maintain for social distancing. Now, if you come down with a fever and a dry cough, which are the top two symptoms of the Coronavirus…by the way, those symptoms are very common for the influenza virus as well and could be even a completely different virus, then what you want to do is isolate yourself as best you can from your household, family members, and also obviously you’re going to stay home from work and you’re going to not go into public.
If you do have to come in close contact with other people during your illness. Please be courteous and put on a mask. The masks are actually for the sick people to help prevent spread from the sick person to healthy people. There actually is no evidence to support that a healthy person wearing a mask will, you know, not get the virus as much as someone who’s not wearing a mask at all.
And actually, you may be kind of monkeying with the mask on your face and could even potentially spread it even more than it is if you weren’t wearing a mask at all. So the masks are really for the sick people. I hope this helps describe a little bit about what you can do to prevent getting the Coronavirus and what you can just do to prevent general spread in the community of not just the Coronavirus but any virus.
Check out the other parts of this series below.
Part 3: Who’s At High Risk At Contracting The Coronavirus?
Part 4: Major Symptoms of Coronavirus COVID-19
Part 5: The Functional Medicine Approach to the Coronavirus
Part 6: Supplements for Viral and Immune Support
