QualiCare Maids
Mar 14, 20205 min
CDC health officials recommend simply avoiding close contact with others if sickness has become apparent in your community. Places like public parks, grocery stores, movie theaters, libraries, and shopping malls could up your individual risk for exposure. Stay at least six feet away from a person with respiratory symptoms, don’t touch your eyes, nose, or mouth with your fingers and cover your mouth for a cough and your nose for a sneeze.
QualiCare Maids was featured on WCNC News on March 12, 2020
in an interview that illustrated how we are incorporating the CDC cleaning and sanitizing recommendations in all home, apartment, and office cleanings for both new and existing customers to combat the spread of the Coronavirus in the Charlotte area.
Featured on WCNC News Video Link:
You’ve heard it before but we’ll say it again: Get your hands soapy and scrub, scrub, scrub. This is one of the most important things you can do. “It's the most effective way to prevent illness and infection," says Nipunie Rajapakse, M.D., M.P.H., a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases specialist. "We know viral particles that end up on your fingers and hands can be transmitted to other people.”
Whenever possible, get to a sink and wash your hands after being out in public or touching a common surface others may have touched, after coughing or sneezing, and before cooking and eating. Be sure to get every part of your hands and fingers — palms, fingertips, under your nails, between your fingers, and even the tops — and wash them for at least 20 seconds. If there’s no sink nearby, use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol content until you can get to one.
Start practicing good hand hygiene now and ramp it up.
In addition to washing your hands after using the bathroom
(at home or work), wash your hands: before eating; after touching used tissues; after coming in from crowded areas, such as mass transit; before bedtime; before applying make-up; before and after handling contact lens, or pretty much anytime you have been or will be in contact with your mucus membranes, which are your eyes, mouth, and inside the nose.
“Limit how much time you spend out in public or around others. It’s unusual for us to be living this way, but it’s one of the easiest ways to prevent the spread of germs, and it’s necessary over the next few weeks to see if we can halt the spread of this virus from person to person,” says Carl Fichtenbaum, M.D., of the infectious disease division at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Work from home if you can, walk or travel by car instead of public transportation whenever possible, and avoid traveling for leisure. When you're not working, “try to keep a positive attitude by catching up on projects you’ve been putting off or watching Netflix shows you haven’t had time to watch,” Dr. Fichtenbaum suggests.
If you have symptoms of the common cold or flu (which coronavirus may mimic) and are a healthy individual with no underlying medical conditions, you should absolutely stay home. For those who live with others, let your housemates handle the cooking, cleaning, and laundry, and whenever possible isolate yourself in your own area. "Social distancing has been shown to be effective in slowing the spread of infection during many outbreaks in the past,” says Dr. Rajapakse.
In the event that symptoms worsen or you suspect that you need to be tested for coronavirus, call a doctor to see where testing is available — avoid just showing up at an urgent care clinic or the emergency room unless you have severe symptoms such as high fever, very low body temperature, shortness of breath, confusion, or feel like you might pass out, Harvard experts recommend.
People who are older than age 60, are pregnant, or have a condition such as heart disease, diabetes, or a suppressed immune system, should call a doctor as soon as any symptoms arise, no matter how mild or severe — these populations seem to be hardest hit by coronavirus, so it’s critical to get medical attention and testing as soon as possible.
Whether you’re under the weather or feeling perfectly fine, it’s a good idea to hit pause on all types of touching — that means kissing, hugging, hand shakes, high fives, fist bumps, and elbow rubs. If you’re around others, keep some space between you — an arm's length.
If you or someone in your family is feeling under the weather, you'll want to determine their symptoms. If they are flu-like, it's best to keep that person isolated in a room:
Don't share meals or bedding, and avoid their dirty tissues or mucus. "Hard common surfaces in the home — everything from counters to TV remotes — are the target for immediate disinfecting.
If you are not sure what to wipe, pay attention to the things you are touching in the household and put a sticky note on it to remind you where to clean." If you don't have immediate access to disinfectant wipes or sprays, you can make a substitute by mixing 1/4 of a cup of bleach with 2 and 1/4 cups of water.
And remember to cough or sneeze into your elbow or a tissue and then immediately wash your hands. This will help prevent the spread of germs or viral particles.
Phones and tablets are what the CDC calls "high touch" surfaces, so you're going to want to clean them. You should avoid using rubbing alcohol, disinfectants, or similar sprays, Business Insider previously reported, in part because using them can damage the protective coating on your phone's screen.
Instead, turn off your device, lightly dampen a microfiber cloth with soap and water, and scrub the screen. You can also use a UV sanitation device, which beams UV-C rays at your phone in order to kill germs.
There is no need to shake dirty laundry, as that can spread viruses through the air. Use the warmest appropriate water setting for washing the items and let them dry completely afterward.
If you're not using gloves when washing dirty laundry, make sure to wash your hands afterwards. Also, consider washing the laundry bag that holds your clothes, as that surface can also collect germs and viruses.
Thoroughly sanitize all common use surfaces — countertops, bathrooms, remotes, and computers — with disinfectant wipes or spray. You should also clean your cell phone. If you go to the gym, wipe down machines and weights with disinfectant wipes before and after use and maintain a distance of 3 to 6 feet between you and other exercisers.
Stress can deliver a hit to our immune system, so do what you can to remain calm. So that you're getting accurate information, “QualiCare Maids suggest signing up for the alert systems provided by your Local and State government and consider limiting your time on social media so you avoid misinformation and constant bad news.”
Also, get plenty of sleep; eat a balanced diet with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, hydrate, and exercise.
For Updated Information on the Coronavirus please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC Link at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html