Almost a year abode with pandemic and the virus is showing no signs of going away. In the absence of a vaccine, it seems that we must learn to live with COVID-19. What does that actually look like?
- New Normal: Economic downfalls, compulsion to continue with income generation, and the urge to getting back to socialized life have immensely wedged our lives. Â
- Underlying immunity: As of now we are creating some level of underlying immunity by shielding the elderly. But we also keep up with control measures and aim for the elimination of the virus.
- Vaccine Campaign: Unlike most of the other infectious diseases, people who catch COVID do not always show symptoms. Thus even after we carry out coordinated vaccine campaign all over the world, it is highly unlikely to completely eradicate COVID-19.
- Natural Immunity: Reports have revealed that some people have gotten ill with COVID-19 more than once. SARs, MERS COV which are both related to bat coronavirus presented new pathogens for human immune systems to respond to. It would have been remarkable to achieve natural immunity to COVID without a vaccine.
- Stringent Measures: Quarantine for contacts of people with the infection needs to be controlled along with regular deep cleaning of public areas and transportation. Authorities will have to carry measures to contain unnecessary traveling.
- Mask Protection: People are encouraged to wear masks or cloth face covering all the time. This will not only help to reduce the exposure to infectious filtration of COVID-19 but will also give protection from air pollution. Wearing masks is essential now.
- Maintain hygiene: COVID-19 has shown how important it is to maintain proper hygiene at all times. We have to adapt to washing hands after any activity and avoid touching our nose, eyes, and mouth. Â
- Testing and isolating: The key to reducing COVID-19 outbreaks is to identify people who are infected as soon as possible, through testing and contact tracing to reduce the numbers affected by a particular incident.
- Social Distancing: If this has not been given emphasized enough, we need to maintain social distancing at all levels. Be it at home or in public spheres, maintaining a safe distance of 2 feet can help to slow down the spread of COVID-19 in communities.
- Way Out: Although most people who got COVID-19 recovered, around 3% of the infected have died around the world. We also do not know what proportion of those who recovered will develop long-term side effects.
It seems that COVID-9 will be a fact of life for some time to come. Although we need to accept that we need to learn to live with this virus, it doesn’t mean we should let it infect more people. We need to work together to make sure to control new outbreaks within our communities.
