If you’re concerned about coming into contact with COVID-19, you’re not alone. People everywhere are rightfully worried about the devastating impact the virus can have on them personally and on their community. It’s important that we know how to avoid contracting the disease and spreading it to others. Here are 8 tips that you can implement now to help keep you, your family, and your community safe.
1. Wash Your Hands Often.
It’s important to wash your hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If you’re not able to use soap and water, you can use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Maintaining good hand washing practices helps lower your risk of contracting COVID-19 and also reduces the spread of infection to others.
2. Don’t Touch Your Face.
This might seem like an easy one but you’d be amazed at the amount of times you actually touch your face in a single day. Nevertheless, because the virus is thought to enter your body through your eyes, nose, and mouth, it’s important to be mindful of your actions and avoid touching your face as much as possible.
3. Practice Good Respiratory Hygiene.
Since we’re on the topic of good personal hygiene, why not spend a couple of minutes each day focusing on a highly overlooked part of your respiratory health routine — sinus cleansing. We’re not talking about your old neti pot sinus rinse! Today's sinus therapy systems are much more advanced. More importantly, they are much more comfortable. These devices not only keep your sinuses clean and free of unwanted allergens, dust, bacteria and viruses, they also help improve your breathing, allowing you to take in more oxygen, perform at higher levels, and get better results.
4. Keep Your Distance from Sick People.
By now, social distancing should be almost second nature when you’re out in public. That being said, you should be extra cautious around people who are exhibiting signs of illness such as sneezing or coughing. It’s recommended that you maintain at least two meters between yourself and others to avoid contact with the virus.
5. Don’t Share Personal Items with Others.
To help stop COVID-19 from spreading, it’s important that you don’t share personal items such as food, drinks, glasses, utensils, towels and other household items with others. Make sure you’re packing your own snacks and bringing along your water bottle to reduce the amount of contact you have with other people touching your stuff.
6. Clean and Disinfect High Traffic Areas.
It’s important to properly wipe down any frequently touched surfaces with a good disinfectant. These areas could include tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets and sinks. You can pick up a good store-bought disinfectant or find a good natural recipe that will do the trick nicely.
7. Avoid Physical Contact When Greeting People.
Over are the days of hugs and handshakes, for now anyway… Instead, many people are choosing to wave, smile, or nod when greeting each other. Unfortunately, close contact with others is a major contributor to the spread of the virus and, until things get back to normal, we’ll just all have to practice air high-fives.
8. Self-Isolate if you feel sick.
Of course, if you're feeling sick or showing any symptoms, like a cough or a fever, be sure to stay away from others by self-isolating and contact a health professional. Take special care to avoid the young, the elderly, or anyone with a compromised immune system. Stay home and don’t go out in public for any reason to avoid spreading the virus.
It’s a scary time that we are living in but there are things that we can do to keep ourselves and others safe during this pandemic. Follow these simple steps for starters and stay positive. If we all do our part, we’ll get through this together.
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