Safest, Less Safe, Risky, Riskiest

A group of Lopezians, many of us active or retired health care professionals, formed Lopez COVID Health Support Team in the early days of the pandemic. Our goal: help promote a healthy community by sharing our expertise along with the many other groups and individuals working to stop the virus’s spread. The team’s latest effort has been island-specific education to decrease COVID risk, especially during the winter holidays. 

With the help of Lopez artist Moira McDonough (and a few of our local sheep), we hope to demonstrate that a “bubble” or “pod” might be bigger than we think. And although guidance about ways to prevent the spread of COVID can be confusing, we’ve narrowed it down to —

Three Cs to Avoid:

Crowded Pastures

Close-Contact Conversations

Confined/Enclosed Spaces.

Here’s another way to think about safe and risky behaviors:

Safest: Stay in your household bubble for the holidays.

Less Safe: Quarantine for 2 weeks before getting together with people outside your bubble, OR quarantine for 7 days, then receive a COVID test and results before getting together. If you must go indoors away from home, wear a mask, keep exposure time to a minimum, and keep 6 feet of physical distance.

Risky: Spending extended time indoors with people other than your household bubble, even with everyone masked.

Riskiest– Spending time in a confined space with people other than your household bubble without quarantine or masks. This is one behavior to eliminate.

On a brighter note, several activities are less risky than scientists believed at first. You don’t need to wear a mask on a physically distant walk or a jog. Keeping six feet distance outdoors is more important than wearing a mask. However, in some areas it’s not possible to keep 6 feet apart, even outdoors. So, keep your mask handy!

And always, WASH YOUR HANDS!