Planning to eat out, go shopping, visit a salon? What to do, what not to do during COVID-19 outbreak

It is imperative to ensure that appropriate measures are taken by people when out and keep the transmission rate in rate.

Planning to eat out or resume your favourite outdoor activities? After four months of Coronavirus outbreak in India, people are getting ready to step outside their houses and resume outdoor activities. While there is resumption in activities, the risk of being infected by the novel Coronavirus still lingers. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that appropriate measures are taken by people when out and keep the transmission rate in rate.

A report by the IE has highlighted that the risk of being infected by COVID-19 is directly proportional to the time the person is exposed to the virus. If a person is in close proximity to a person who even coughs or sneezes, the chances of COVID-19 infection is higher. Apart from this, emitter viral particles can remain for a few hours if the environment is poorly ventilated. Therefore, before doing anything, it is crucial to check if a particular activity comes under high risk or low risk.

The report has stated that activities like opening a mail or parcel which may be touched by an infected person or having takeaways from restaurants and playing a sport which is contactless like tennis comes under the low risk category.

Further, getting groceries, walking outside or running and biking with others, waiting at a clinic are some moderately low risk activities. However, shopping at malls, going to offices, visiting relatives, having dinners can put people at a moderate risk.

According to the report, moderately high risk activities are visiting a hair salon, dining at restaurants, air travel, attending a wedding/ funeral and hugging or shaking hands with others. These are advised to be avoided. Attending public events where many people are under one roof or visiting religious places have the maximum risks.

While doing any of these activities, one should ensure that standard precautions of hand wash/ sanitizing, wearing proper face masks and maintaining physical distance are of utmost importance. These should be followed when going out to any activity including grocery shopping, walks, runs in a park and running errands. Once back from outside, people should take a shower immediately, and wash all the clothes properly. If you are having a meal from outside, make sure that the food is hot and cooked properly. In case of restaurants, people should not use public washrooms and bring their own sanitizers.