Mithu Chowdhry - Safety against COVID-19

Covid - 19 safety: How to protect yourself WHAT IS A COVID-19? COVID-19 is the infectious disease caused by the most recently discovered coronavirus (“CO” stands for corona; “VI” for virus; “19” the year in which it appeared). This new virus and disease were unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. In December 2020, news media reported a new variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and since then, other variants have been identified and are under investigation WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF COVID-19? The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness, and dry cough. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome and even death. How Does COVID-19 spread? COVID-19 is spread through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speak. People can also be infected by touching a contaminated surface and then their eyes, mouth or nose. WHO IS AT RISK OF DEVELOPING SEVERE ILLNESS? While we are still learning about how COVID-2019 affects people, older persons and persons with pre- existing medical conditions (such as high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, cancer or diabetes) appear to develop serious illness more often than other. HOW CAN WE PROTECT MYSELF AND ITS COUNTERMEASURS? We can reduce our chances of being infected or spreading COVID-19 by taking some simple precautions: 1. Wearing a mask is not only important, it’s life - saving. By wearing a mask we are stopping the spread and protecting others. 2. Regularly and thoroughly clean our hands with an alcohol based hand rub or wash them with soap and water, because these actions kill viruses that may be on our hands. 3. Keep a safe distance of at least 2 meter (6 feet) from people. The virus is contained in saliva droplets and can be transmitted by breathing at close range, particularly when they cough, sneeze or have a fever. 4. Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth, because hands touch many surfaces and can pick up viruses. Once contaminated, hands can transfer the virus to our eyes, nose or mouth. From there, the virus can enter our body and can make us sick. 5. Make sure we, and the people around us, follow good respiratory hygiene. This means covering our mouth and nose with our bent elbow or tissue when we cough or sneeze. Then dispose of the used tissue immediately. Why? Droplets spread virus. By following good respiratory hygiene we protect the people around us from viruses such as cold, flu and COVID-19. 6. Avoid shaking hands and hugging, for the reasons mentioned above. Stay at home as much as possible, following the rules indicated by the authorities. 7. Vaccines is the final solution to prevent coronavirus. Vaccines teach our bodies to fight the infection and are "the" exit strategy from the pandemic. The three vaccine frontrunners are those developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford/AstraZeneca . All three are supposed to be given as two doses, but the UK is prioritising giving as many people as possible the first dose and delaying the second.