Now a days, you start talking to anyone and the very first word that
pops up is 'CORONA'. I know you definitely must have heard of
the most frightening, the most dangerous 'coronavirus pandemic' which is creating havoc
all
over the world. The outbreak of this virus began in November 2019 in
Wuhan city of China, the place where the first case of Covid-19 was
found. The whole world would have never ever imagined that after celebrating new-year
2020, everyone would experience only and only sitting at home and watch
how the cases of Covid-19 keep increasing..
So let's try to get
more information and understand everything that evolves this dangerous word...
What is Covid-19?
The COVID-19 is the
cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness.
Since December 2019,
cases have been identified in a growing number of countries.
I wonder how cases
keep increasing all over the world!!!
Coronaviruses are a
large family of viruses that are known to cause illness ranging from the
common cold to more severe diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory syndrome
(SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).Currently Coronavirus is
known as SARSCov-2.
Here is a small video to understand how quickly this virus spreads ...
Symptoms...
Reported illnesses
have ranged from mild symptoms to severe illness and also at times
death for confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases. Below symptoms
may appear 2-14 days after exposure:
- Cough
- Fever
- Headache
- New loss of taste or smell
- Repeated shaking with chills
- Sore throat
- Shortness of breath
- Muscle pain
So now that we know
the symptoms, not to worry. We have some very easy ways in which we can prevent
this.
So how can it be prevented...
1. Wash your hands
frequently and carefully with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds.
2. Use hand sanitizer
when you cannot wash your hands properly.
3. Avoid touching your
face.
4. Cover your mouth and nose when you cough and sneeze as virus can
be carried by air droplets to other people.
Isn't it simple! So let's all promise to follow above steps and take
precautions...
But don't you think,
that we have understood what Covid is and how it can be prevented, we are
missing the most important aspect, Mental
health. Exactly... mental health of individuals is affected badly for past
few months....
Mental Health...
Fear of contracting
the pandemic has bought significant changes in our daily lives as movements are
restricted. People are faced with new realities of working from home,
temporary unemployment, home-schooling of children, and lack of physical
contact with other family
members, friends and colleagues, which makes it
critical and important that we look after our physical and mental health.
Let's see how mental health is affecting people across various age
groups...
Children -
- Keep in contact with friends: Physical distancing can be a cause of distress among children. To remove it they might talk to their friends, video call them and do fun online.
- Indoor activities: They can do indoor activities to cut down their boredom! They can do stretching, yoga and can even help parents with household chores.
- Online classes: Since all schools, colleges are closed they do online classes to keep their learning going. Parents can encourage children to appear for free online test.
Older Adults -
- Need to sanitize every now and then.
- Provide emotional support and help them with daily needs
- Call and talk to them regularly to check on them
- Play some indoor games like cards, chess, ludo, snakes and ladders, etc.
- Reassure them that prevention measures will help them to remain in good health
- Try to spend more time with them.
- Encourage them to keep daily routines with daily chores and activities and limit the constant stream of news
People in Isolation/Quarantine -
Common effects which
people face are insomnia (lack of sleep), low mood, stress, irritability and
confusion.
The isolation imposed
by quarantine frequently leaves people feeling that they have no control over
the situation. They also feel cut off from the rest of the world and unable to
perform their usual duties.
Steps to cope with
quarantine are:
- Establish a routine-help
- Maintain sleep schedule
- Have General well-being
- Distract yourself by reading or following some hobby
- Disconnect from devices-at times to feel calm and relaxed
- Communicate-with friends and family members
- Empathize-with suffering who are living a difficult time
All the doctors and
nursing staff from different countries are working day-night to help people
fight this dreadful disease. Also the researchers are giving more than 100% to
find the vaccine of coronavirus so that we can defeat this virus called
COVID-19 .We thank all the doctors for their tremendous efforts and wish them ALL THE VERY BEST!!!!!
TILL THEN EXPECT EVERYONE TO
STAY HOME... STAY SAFE!!!