JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Tahani Baakdhah @thepurplelilac

On Monday, June 1, many of the quarantine restrictions will be relaxed. Buses and trains will be allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity. Taxis, tricycles, Grab Cars, but not jeeps will start running again. People above the age of 21 and under the age of 60 can leave the house. Non-essential businesses can reopen. This is happening because the economy has to be restarted and workers have to be able to go to work.

There is still no vaccine for covid, and still no mass testing. The number of covid cases is still rising, though the DOH says this is due to late reporting of data rather than new infections. The only thing that has prevented all of us from getting sick, and the health care system from being overwhelmed, is lockdown, and that is ending. With the easing of lockdown rules, the danger of getting infected by coronavirus is very high. Do not let the last two and a half months of staying indoors go to waste. This is not the time to run out and have a party. Nothing has changed, our cheerful paranoia must continue.

Here are two articles about how you can protect yourself from covid. We do not know everything about the coronavirus. It is still mutating in order to fool our bodies and infect more of us faster. It is the worst little mofo. This is what we do know right now.

The Risks—Know Them—Avoid Them is by Comparative Immunologist and Professor of Biology Erin Bromage.

Key points:

– Most people get infected in their own home, by a household member who contracts the virus outside and brings it back home.
– The virus is released by coughing, sneezing, breathing, and speaking.
– Be extra cautious in public bathrooms as the risk of infection by surface and air is high.
– Successful Infection = Exposure to Virus x Time. If you are face-to-face with anyone for ten minutes or more, you can get infected. If you share a space for an extended period, you can get infected.
– Weddings, funerals, and birthdays are super-spreading events.
– Being in enclosed spaces like restaurants, offices, schools, churches and public transportation increases your risk of infection.
– If you are sitting in a well-ventilated space with few people, the risk of infection is low.

Is The Virus on My Clothes? My Shoes? My Hair? My Newspaper? in the New York Times.

According to experts, Probably Not.
– If you go to the grocery and someone sneezes on you, go home, shower, and change your clothes. If no one coughs or sneezes on you, you stay six feet away from other people, and you don’t go out everyday, washing your hands is fine. Always wash your hands.
– Your hair is safe. Unless you are super unlucky, like if someone sneezes repeatedly on the back of your head, and you touch your hair where the virus landed then rub your eyes.
– Don’t worry about your laundry, unless you are doing the laundry of a person with covid.
– Packages should be fine, but wash your hands after handling them. If you’re uneasy, leave the packages alone for 24 hours.
– Walking outdoors is safe, but stay six feet away from other people.
– Your shoes are teeming with germs, but probably not coronavirus. Leave them by the door.

Wear your masks. People say you can’t get the virus from touching surfaces, but wear gloves anyway. At the very least they’ll remind you not to touch your face, and keep your hands moisturized through all the hand-washing.

Cheerful paranoia, everyone! I’m staying home for the foreseeable future.