By Karla Thomas
Handwashing with soapy water thoroughly and frequently for at least 20 seconds, is the single most important thing you can do to remain COVID-19-free.
There is more to quarantining than simply isolating, especially if there are others in your home.
Whether you live with a spouse, significant other, small children or even in-laws, COVID-19 poses a threat to your family’s health.
Ensuring their safety and your own is the single-most important thing in our lives today.
Here are a few old-school methods our grandparents used whenever someone was sick with something contagious. They will work great for the current COVID-19 outbreak.
1. Isolate infected persons. Absolutely no visitors. They should only leave the area to use the bathroom. Husbands and wives — one in the bed, the other in the spare bedroom or on the couch, please!
2. Make sure to clean and sanitize the bathroom after every use to prevent contamination or infection of others in the household.
3. Add a capful of bleach to dishwater when handwashing dishes. Automatic dishwashers use hot steam to sanitize.
4. Wash the clothes and linen of the isolated person separately.
5. Whenever possible, use paper plates, disposable cups and cutlery. Use gloves when giving or receiving anything from the isolation room. It should all go straight to the trash or be sanitized.
6. Make sure the isolated person is warm and comfortable — cell phone, charger, clean linen, snacks, cough drops, music, movies, books and plenty of TLC.
7. Keep children and seniors away from the isolation room. They can FaceTime or Skype.
8. Make sure the person in isolation has access to a thermometer and track their temp several times per day. This info should be kept in a log and available to medical personnel should the patient’s condition worsen.
9. Keep the patient hydrated. Water, orange juice and hot tea with lemon, honey and a dash of black pepper will help keep mucus from forming. Maintain whatever diet is tolerable for them but especially keep those fluids coming.
10. If temperatures spike, coughing becomes worse or the patient becomes extremely fatigued, call their primary care doctor. If they experience tightening in their chest or have difficulty breathing, go to the nearest emergency room.
Caretakers who follow this quarantine regimen will help significantly reduce opportunity for the transmission of COVID-19 to others in the house.