How far is enough for safe social distancing against COVID?

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Mass vaccination efforts in the Kingdom of Bahrain against the coronavirus (COVID-19) are running full blast amid a significant decline in the number of new and active cases as well as fatalities.

 Health experts, however, have warned that the fight is still far from over. In fact, they recommend people to still wear masks or cloth face covering and practise social distancing, among other important precautionary measures, even after getting the vaccine.

The coronavirus is still very much around us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t help prevent its spread.

Indeed, 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! To better define what the National Medical Taskforce for Combating the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is asking us to do, physical distancing is now being used to describe what we need to do to break the chain 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 – we just need to do that in creative, virtual ways for the time being.