Get back to ‘normal’ life, practise social distancing

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The coronavirus is still very much around us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t help prevent its spread. Thing is, we can get back to “normal” life while protecting ourselves and others from the virus. How? By practising social distancing.

One of the best ways to reduce the spread of the virus is by continuing to practise social distancing or what others call physical distancing. What is social distancing and why is it important? According to studies, the coronavirus spreads easily. Social distancing puts space between individuals.

The most common way COVID-19 spreads is through person-to-person contact.

When an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks, they produce respiratory droplets that can travel about six feet and can land in the mouths or noses of those nearby. Studies show that even a distance of three feet significantly decreases the spread of the coronavirus from one person to another.

At six feet, the risk decreases even further, at nine feet even further than that, and so on, particularly in an indoor setting.

This is basically the reason why social distancing is so important! However, it is not just about keeping a distance of at least two arms lengths, approximately two metres, from others, as much as possible. It means a whole lot more.

Generally speaking, it means making changes in our everyday routines in order to minimise close contact with others, such as avoiding crowded places and non-essential gatherings; avoiding common greetings, such as handshakes; and limiting contact with people at higher risk particularly adults and those in poor health.

However, to better define what the National Medical Taskforce for Combating the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) is asking us to do, the term physical distancing is now being used to describe what we need to do to break the chain and prevent the spread of COVID-19. Physical distancing is just as it sounds, it means avoiding close physical contact with others to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

This includes working from home, where possible; conducting meetings virtually; and keeping kids away from group gatherings. While keeping a physical distance is very important, we don’t need to socially isolate or distance ourselves.

Rather, we need to stick together now more than ever and emotionally connect with one another – we just need to do that in creative, virtual ways for the time being. While those at the highest risk seem to be those over age 60 and those with chronic health conditions, the best thing everyone can do is adhere to strict social distancing measures.

At this point, it is unclear as to how long we will have to follow these strict social distancing practices. As we’ve seen, the COVID-19 situation evolves daily and health experts are doing their best to get ahead of this and be as proactive as possible. However, the sooner we can get everyone on board with social distancing the better!

In the meantime, social distancing is of our best protections to prevent the spread of COVID-19 so let’s flatten that curve together – but from at least two-metre distance apart!