The fight with COVID-19 is still isn’t over. While the number of people getting tested and vaccinated continues to be on the rise, new cases are still being registered every day.
As the cases continue to pile up, it’s important to set basic health and safety rules for you, your family, and your quarantine pod. This will not only keep you and those immediately around you protected and safe but also help you fight the virus in case you or any of your family members get infected.
That said, here are three things you can add to your basic health and safety rules to keep you safe as possible from the virus:
Don’t Ignore Signs of Infection
We are now dealing with a COVID-19 virus that is a mutation of the original strain. The signs of infection and its symptoms have also changed and have become much harder to detect unlike before.
Some hallmark signs of infection from the 2019 virus composition but the current strain spreads faster, which means there is a higher risk of infection especially for those who haven’t been vaccinated against the virus yet.
If you suspect that you or any of your family members may have been infected by the virus, head over to an urgent care facility to get tested right away. Whether your tests come back positive or negative for infection, it’s still best to continue following social distancing and preventive protocols to ensure that you do not get infected or infect anyone with the virus.
Follow Treatment and Isolation Guidelines
In the event that you or any of your family members test positive for the virus, it’s important for the rest of the family to get tested as well and observe quarantine guidelines to contain the virus, in case anyone else in the family is carrying it.
Letting people whom you interacted with in the last couple of weeks should also be informed, so they too can take the necessary steps: testing and quarantining until the test results come out.
The more people get infected by the virus, the more chances for the virus to mutate. Viruses, including the deadly coronavirus, aren’t living things or living organisms themselves. However, they are capable of entering a living cell through infection. In this case, the cells of the human body. This is why it is important that the body’s immune system can resist and fight the virus, in case of an infection.
Once the virus gets a hold of a cell, that’s when they begin to multiply inside the human body. When the carrier passes the virus to another human, that’s when the virus begins to spread. Ergo, until the virus runs out of bodies containing cells to host them and allow them to multiply — and this can only be possible when a person is vaccinated — the spreading of the virus won’t stop and the threat of a new strain developing is more certain than not.
Get Information from Official Sources
Echoing the point mentioned above regarding vaccination, it is important to understand that no one is being forced to get vaccinated. Instead, every single one of us is required to make a decision: to get vaccinated or defer getting vaccinated.
If you or any of your family members are doubtful of the existence of the coronavirus, the efficacy of the available vaccines, the side effects, what to happens after you get vaccinated, and whether you should or shouldn’t get vaccinated—head over to legitimate websites with credible and correct information about the Covid-19 virus and the currently available vaccines.
Should you wish to defer vaccination, you must understand that you are at a greater risk of infecting the virus and infecting others in the process. If you have decided to get or have been vaccinated, you still should remain careful and observe preventive protocols.
While those who have been vaccinated are at a lower risk of getting infected and have a higher chance of recovery after receiving the complete dose of vaccination, they should remain vigilant in keeping themselves safe and healthy to prevent any form of infection — symptomatic or asymptomatic — from happening and spreading the virus unknowingly.
At the first sign of infection, make sure to head to an urgent care facility to get yourself tested, inform family members and those you’ve been in contact with for the past couple of weeks so that they too can take the necessary preventive steps and isolate until the test results are returned. This way, we can all work together to prevent the spread of the virus and bring the number of cases every day.
Always remember: by protecting yourself, you are protecting your family and the friends you share space with, including the people in your community.
