Covid 19 - A message from Indian to Australians

I was in Kerala, India when India faced the wrath of Covid-19 second wave. The total daily cases in Kerala summited from 1000+ to 40,000+ a day. I was there with my family and we were able to defend it with few basic principle. We all were tested negative during this entire sh*t show (as far as we know, touch wood).

With the warning from the Chief Health Officer, Dr. Sutton yesterday (08/09/2021), I was wondering if those tips are worth sharing and might help some or all of us to stay safe and beat this beast.

Double Mask

Always wear a double mask. Wear a single use mask and wear your fancy normal mask on top of it. Before entering home, just chuck the non-fancy one in the bin and the fancy one for wash.

Even-though wearing a mask inside a car is not mandatory in here, once you wear a mask, try not to remove it, let it be on your face, unless there is a safe compartment in your car where you can keep it. It is very important that you or your belongings does not touch the mask.

Sanitise

This is a very integral part of staying safe. Keep one bottle at home, keep a small one in your car and keep a really small one in your pocket/wallet when you go for a walk, run etc. Sanitise when ever we can. After you touch something, sanitise. After you check some thing in a shelf, you sanitise, you get inside your car, you sanitise, you get out of your car, you sanitise. After you sanitise, you sanitise again. Did I mention that you have to sanitise very often? Also, sanitise whenever you can. Sanitise.

Shower

After you leave your home, when you reach back, chuck your clothes in the washing machine and take a shower. So rather than using "I had a shower earlier today" as an alibi, plan your shower if you have a plan to leave home. 

Home Quarantine

Things that are entering you house for the first time, need to do a compulsory 10 to 14 day quarantine. This might sound strange to begin with, however this will make sense once you start doing it. 

When you buy a bag of chips, or a bag of toilet paper, put this aside in a "special" isolated place in your house for 14 days. This will quarantine your bag of toilet paper. The last thing that you want is to wipe your bum with this virus.

Few thing to keep in mind are the following:

• This is not ideal for perishable items like meat, bread, veggies etc.
• There should be a level of abstraction for things that you buy today and the ones that you bought last week. The one you bought last week was in quarantine for 7 days, if you add things you bought today to it, the counter resets and its is all back to day 1. So don't mix 'em.
• If this is not possible, wipe them down with an alcohol wipes, that is the least you can do.
• Once you touch them, sanitise your hand.

Leaving Home

There are only very few reasons to leave home. The reasons should be the obvious ones. Shopping for groceries, exercise, getting some fresh air, getting a vaccine or visiting hospital. Try to avoid catching up with mates outside, and even if you bump into a mate in the street "accidentally", socially distance.

Moral of the story

There are many other things that you can do like having a sanitising machine at home, stay put inside the house at all times, get everything delivered home etc. If those seems to be a bit of an overkill, try to wear a double mask, sanitise and you should all be fine.

Did I forget to mention sanitise? Sanitise please.

Stay inside, stay safe. 

Cherio.