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What steps should people take in case they need to quarantine?
With quarantines becoming both a reality for many and an increasing likelihood for many more, what are the recommended best practices for preparing oneself and household?
There's a lot of general advice already out there, so specific advice would be really helpful, as well as things people are likely to forget.
This is a well-written resource: https://www.flattenthecurve.com
This is really good. Thank you. I was going to suggest that you post it as its own topic but you already did!
I found this guide from Better Health Australia which seemed to have some good coping ideas.
Personally, I would suggest the following:
Edit: one more to add: Exercise! As often as possible, if you're healthy enough to do so. It'll make you feel much better.
I will also add that the idea is to stay away from other people and not to avoid exercise or the outdoors. It depends on the area, but going for a walk in your neighborhood or a hike might be pretty low-risk where you live, if it's not crowded.
Oh yes, absolutely! If you're healthy but in quarantine, you can go out get out and exercise, but don't do things that require you to touch things other people are touching, or be with other people.
If I live in a relatively sense suburban area is it irresponsible to go on midnight walks while sick? I can leave my apartment without going through any common areas.
Well, I probably shouldn't give specific advice. I'm not an expert or anything.
This isn't specific to Coronavirus but I'll talk about it anyway. I recommend looking into video chat, not just for work, but with relatives. Over the holidays I got a Nest Hub Max for my mother and set it up for her, and we started a habit of chatting every day over breakfast (her lunch due to the timezone difference). This is really great for staying in touch and keeping us both reassured. Mom lives in a rural area by herself and doesn't leave the house much, which would ordinarily be a disadvantage but it seems like a good thing now.
Unfortunately, setting up it up is not something Mom would have been able to get through without help; it took multiple days to do it when I was there. In part this is because she doesn't have a smart phone and the setup assumes that you do. We we had to find a workaround. But there are other ways to video chat, and phone calls would also work.
This is very sweet, and I'm sure it means the world to her!
Your comment and the link posted by @aphoenix have helped me realize how important it's going to be to keep in touch with people I know -- especially those living alone -- should we go into quarantine. Before reading these I was mostly focused on survival needs and not social ones, so thank you for the perspective.
I think the specifics are going to depend on the situation? Like, for example, making sure you have enough medication is good general advice I've seen in multiple places, but it's hard to be more specific than that in an all-purpose list.
You can also stock up on food, but people have different foods they like. Personally I feel happier with a few cases of Soylent in the house, but that's something I actually do like to drink. (We are stocking up on other food as well because we're not living on Soylent.)
Maybe one way to do this would be start with the CDC advice if you are sick and work backwards from there?
With regard to specifics, I was thinking of stuff along the lines of a piece of advice I heard today. A family member suggested making sure that you have separate tubes of toothpaste for each family member in your household.
A lot of the preparedness talk has simply mentioned to have supplies on hand, but that kind of specific detail is really valuable, as I think it's something a lot of people would overlook (myself included).
Really, it's just hunker down and hydrate. You can only treat it like a flu, at least symptomatically, so maybe decongestants, antihistamines, and later expectorants and fever reducers. You can only be helped by medical personnel if you are in danger of dying (shortness of breath, exceptionally high fever).
alright so i have type 1 diabetes. what do i need to do in order to prepare for the inevitable? I hardly leave my apartment so I don't think I'll be infected but just to be sure.
edit: btw, because of my illness my family wasn't listening to me months ago. makes me feel like less of a person