(Or infect others should you happen to be asymptomatic / feel fine, but actually have COVID-19... Asymptomatic cases are still infectious.)
Where possible, follow the instructions from authorities. This includes some of the by-now familiar guidelines for social distancing:
- Change your greetings. Instead of a handshake, hug, or kiss(es), try waving or bowing from a distance.
- Your eyes, nose, and mouth are possible ways for the virus to enter your body. Wash your hands before touching your face. Don't touch your face while outside.
- Wash your hands vigorously with soap and water as often as possible, including as soon as you come home and before eating. Use soap and water, not hand sanitizer, when possible: It is more reliable.
- Change your clothes when you get home as well.
- Regularly sterilize doorknobs, table surfaces, keyboards, and other places people frequently touch.
- Cough and sneeze into your elbow, not into your hand or unprotected.
- Work from home when possible.
- Use alternatives to in-person meetings (e.g., video or voice calls) when possible.
- Avoid crowds and unnecessary travel. If you must go shopping, do it when stores are less likely to be busy. If you must be in a crowd, try to keep your personal distance from others and move away from anyone who seems to be ill (e.g., is coughing or sneezing).
- Instead of taking public transit, walk or bike wherever you can. If you must take public transit, again keep your personal distance from others and move away from anyone who is ill.
- Instead of going to restaurants, cook and eat at home.
- Instead of having food or groceries delivered or delivering them to another person at home with direct contact, arrange to have them left or to leave them outside the door.
- Instead of meeting friends for a coffee or a drink, have a video-chat or coordinate a walk to the grocery store while keeping your safe distance of at least 1.5 meters, or around five feet apart.
- Instead of exercising inside (e.g., at the gym), go outside for a walk or run if weather permits, while keeping your distance from other people.
- Follow any additional government / public health authority advice, including the eventual advice to stay indoors when that becomes applicable for where you are.
On top of this, you can do things to stay as healthy as possible:
- Ventilate your rooms frequently.
- Eat appropriate amounts of nutrient-rich, healthy food. Include at least some carbohydrates (e.g., bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, etc). Vitamins D ("the sunshine vitamin") and C can be especially helpful in preventing or mitigating the effects of respiratory infections.
- Drink enough fluids, mostly water.
- Get regular exercise. If it is recommended or required to stay indoors, find ways to get moving at home: Dance to favorite songs with friends over video-chat, join online yoga or other exercise classes, or try simple core bodyweight exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, and squats combined with simple stationary aerobic exercises like jumping jacks, hula hooping, and skipping.
- If you smoke, stop smoking.
- Avoid heavy drinking and other drug use, as alcohol and other drugs tend to suppress immune function.
- If you want to do more after first covering these essentials, then consider complementary medicine options to improve immunity, prevent and treat upper respiratory and / or viral infections, and the like. There are a number of possibly useful options, but keep in mind that the evidence so far is specific to different contexts. A lot of snake-oil salesmen are going to make a lot of money off of panic here without offering actual help. Don't fall for them.
This is going to be rough on all of us at times, and it is going to affect each and every one of us differently. refer to the page with recommandations, hints and tips for psychological well-being.
And on top of that, you can prepare so that you are familiar with the things that you will need to do when disease comes knocking. Read the rest of this guide. It is statistically unlikely anyone in your household will develop life-threatening complications, and hopefully there will be plenty of medical care for everyone. It doesn't hurt to be a tiny bit more ready for the worst-case scenario. But remember at the same time that there is no reason to panic. Take a deep breath and continue your regular life as much as possible.
We made a shopping page that lists handy things that may help you care for yourself and others.
If you or your loved ones have existing medical conditions, now is the time to read up on how these conditions could be made worse by COVID-19 / pneumonia. You / they should make extra sure they have plenty of all of your / their necessary medications. Make sure you have all the information relevant for treatment (contact info of doctors, recent lab results, how much of which drugs the patient is taking). Assume for a moment that your regular doctor isn't there and you have to explain it all to a new doctor who has very little time. A recent timeline of visits, results, etc would be nice. What should you not forget? Write it down now!
What sorts of existing medical conditions are especially likely to make you / your loved ones vulnerable to more severe COVID-19 problems?
- Conditions that involve lungs / breathing problems (e.g., asthma, COPD, lung cancer).
- Heart conditions, particularly chronic cardiovascular disease (e.g., hypertension, congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation).
- Conditions that involve compromised immune function, or that require taking immunosuppressant medications (e.g., lupus, arthritis, organ transplantation, some forms of cancer).
- Other chronic hematologic, hepatic, metabolic, neurologic, neuromuscular, renal, or disorders (e.g., sickle cell anemia, diabetes, muscular dystrophy, kidney disease).
If the situation is still somewhat normal where you are, this may be good moment to briefly ask your doctor what (if anything) she/he thinks you should do now, and what you should do if you fall ill. If you have not yet been vaccinated for the seasonal flu, pneumococcal pneumonia, or meningococcal meningitis, now may also be a good time to ask your doctor if you are a candidate for those vaccines. Getting these vaccinations now if your doctor advises it could help prevent another infection from compounding problems that may be caused by COVID-19, should be you be infected later.
During pandemics, it is typical for childhood immunizations, maternal healthcare, and healthcare for chronic health conditions to get cancelled or delayed because doctors, nurses, hospitals, and the rest of the healthcare system may be overloaded, and because people may be afraid to go in to doctors' offices or hospitals for fear (sometimes rational) of being exposed to disease. In case your area is not yet greatly affected by COVID-19: Is there any normal childhood vaccination you want to be sure your child gets while he or she can? Any prenatal care or routine care for a chronic health condition you can get now instead of in a month? What about other conditions that are common ailments for you or your loved ones? Anything you can do to prepare to care for yourselves without normal medical care access in the coming months, in case it becomes harder to get time with doctors and nurses because they are overwhelmed? Do it now.