Patriot Health Digest
The number 1 way to catch coronavirus.
The CDC says there’s one thing most people did before they were diagnosed with Covid: They were in close proximity to someone infected. According to the CDC’s official announcement, “The virus that triggers COVID-19 usually spreads between people who are within 6 feet from each other,” the agency says. “This happens through small particles or respiratory droplets, produced as a covid-positive person sneezes, coughs, breathes or even talks.” Continue on to see why this is dangerous, and how to avoid it.
Avoid low ventilation enclosed spaces
These droplets fall to the ground within six feet, where they become harmless. That’s why there is a six-foot social distance guideline. But the CDC says smaller particles could actually stay in the air and cause covid infection. This is known as airborne transmission.
“There is evidence of COVID-19 patients infecting people who were beyond 6 feet away,” the agency says. “These events happened inside enclosed spaces that had poor ventilation. Sometimes the covid positive person was breathing heavily.”
But the agency noted that not social distancing is a much more common way for covid to transmit from one person to another: “Available evidence suggests that close contact with a person who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 is by far the top cause of the virus’s spread.
What does “close contact” mean exactly?
Everyone knows that you should maintain a six feet social distance. But many don’t know that recently, the CDC expanded that guideline.
The CDC has defined “close contact” as being within six feet of a covid-19 patient for over 15 consecutive minutes. But as of October, the agency changed the language of its definition. Now it reads: being within six feet of a covid positive person for over 15 total minutes in a 24-hour time-period, beginning two days before the start of their illness.
The change was triggered by data from the journal MMWR about a Vermont prison guard who got coronavirus after having 22 short interactions with six people who tested positive with covid the following day.
How to get through Covid-19
Be sure to do everything to prevent getting or spreading COVID-19. Avoid crowds, wear a face mask, socially distance, wash your hands a lot, clean surfaces and only run unavoidable errands. This is how to get through this pandemic and stay healthy.
