Effective Ways to Practice Social Distancing amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic – Dr. Vighnesh Naidu Y

What is social distancing?

Social distancing is maintaining physical distance from people outside our homes. The normal criterion is to maintain a maximum of 6 feet distance from the other person near you. This does not apply to people inside your own home, it’s for people outside of your home. We all know this virus spreads through touching contaminated particles or surfaces but apart from that it is also airborne so the virus is suspended in the air for a duration of a couple of hours and maximum studies in the US has shown that the virus is present around 13 feet away from the positive person. Avoid traveling outside your home to meetings and gatherings is best suggested and that you stay informed as much as possible. 

What is the safest way to protect yourself and others? 

Traveling outside would really be not suggested under any scenario. If it’s an absolute emergency or if you need groceries or drugs, I would suggest the option of getting it delivered to your doorstep. With that being said if that particular facility is not available in your locality, we would suggest you use a simple cloth mask, double folded or triple folded to ensure that you are preventing any kind of particle of matter from getting into your nostrils and mouth. Keep your mouth and nostrils covered at all points of time, ensure that you’re cleaning your hands with sanitizers as you visit any place, especially any supermarket or grocery, or pharmacy. Ensure you’re maintaining a minimum 6 feet distance away from the counter or from people who are there and avoid touching particles or any items on the counters which are most commonly touched by people like the tabletops or the trolly or trays and make sure you clean your hands thoroughly.

If you fall into the high-risk category of people of age above 60 or if you are diabetic or hypertensive we would rather advise you to use someone younger to do this for you apart from you visiting yourself. And it is better that one person of the family visits all the routine for the chores rather than sending different members of the family at different points of time.  

For people having to go to work, what must they do to ensure effective social distancing? 

Going to work at this particular time if it is a must for you, ensure that you’re maintaining  6 feet distance from your colleague.  what you have to bear in mind is that the social distancing concept of 6 feet or 8 feet or 2 meters or whatever we say is keeping in mind that you’re spending a very little amount of time with those particular people but then you are in a single room and you have a significant amount of people and everything changes, if you’re spending more than 15 minutes of time then there is an imminent risk that you might contract the virus if the other person got the symptoms or contact person who has got symptoms. As security from the covid-19, if you have to travel it is suggested to lead the traveling by yourself and not by any rides or any of the public transport and if possible travel individually and ensure that you are protected with your face and nose covered all the time and ensure you are gloving yourself and also sanitizing your equipment as well as your hands often when we use any public document or device or a commonly shared device in your office, and be extremely watchful and vigilant for any early signs or symptoms that you or your colleagues might have. In such a scenario, ensure that they are visiting the nearest government-approved health facilities and get themselves examined and they do not spread it to others.

What are the safe ways to do grocery shopping?

Grocery shopping as discussed, it would be better if you can use the e-commerce sites to deliver groceries to your doorstep. Many of these sites follow contactless delivery, hygiene, and precautionary protocol, but if you have to go outside, ensure that you are thoroughly masked and make sure you cover your hair with a cap if possible, and ensure your hands are gloved. 

In case you don’t have access to gloves, ensure that you are washing your hands thoroughly before and after touching anywhere. If you do have an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, then sanitize yourself thoroughly going into your fingers, between your nail beds, and the arms and forearms.

Avoid touching any commonly used items such as carts, trees or tabletop counters or billing counters, or any of the places you are visiting.

Should we avoid hugs, shaking hands, or even kissing?

Yes. Hugs, handshakes, kissing, and all other physical contacts where you breach the physical distance of a minimum of 3 feet should be avoided. The important thing here is why we avoid these things is that most people who are asymptomatic are not necessarily disease-free. People with the disease of the covid-19 have been known to be asymptomatic but the problem is that the person who is asymptomatic does not get affected by the disease but potentially can spread the disease to others and from there to yourself and to yourself to your loved ones.

So, physical contact with anybody during this particular time is definitely not advisable, especially outside your own home.

Why shouldn’t you go out even for a little bit even if you feel healthy?

One feeling healthy has got nothing to do with the covid-19 scenario. There is a significant percentage of people who feel absolutely healthy but on routine testing have found to be covid positive. New studies have shown that an asymptomatic population is one of the prime reasons for the spread of covid-19. Even though one might feel healthy, it is up to us as a society, as every individual must exercise restraint and ensure that we slow down the progress or prevent the progress of spread of the particular disease in our homes, in our communities, localities, and, our nation. Getting outside the home or venturing outside the home to vile away time is definitely not to do in this period of time.

When should you completely self-quarantine?

When you feel that you are developing symptoms like runny nose, throat irritation, or cough, it is not necessarily covid-19 but is respiratory symptoms that are common. Once you start experiencing symptoms and are willing to wait to see how it progresses, it is then suitable that you quarantine yourself away from the members of your family in a single room and make sure that you are using a different bathroom from your family members and stay well hydrated. The idea of putting yourself in quarantine is to see that you do not spread the infection to others because you are now a suspect. It is imperative that you do not spread this to the other members of your own home or your community.

What is the difference between isolation and quarantine?

The difference between Isolation and Quarantine is that when you suspect that you have respiratory symptoms or you suspect that you have features that suggest the covid-19 or any other respiratory illness, At this point of time you may go into a self Quarantine. This means you are refraining your physical contact even in your own home, and in your locality so you do not spread this particular disease or the virus to others. Quarantine is when you suspect yourself to have a particular disease but in isolation, it is confirmed that you have a particular disease. The process of isolation is separating an unhealthy individual or a person with an illness from the healthy population. So isolation is normally done in confirmed cases and Quarantine is normally done for suspected patients of the infection who can spread the disease.