Incorporating the CDC guidelines into your daily routine are essential to help prevent the spread of the virus.
- Always wear masks, especially when outside or taking care of others who are sick or at high risk of getting COVID-19. Make sure that others also wear masks.
- Wash your hands often, especially after touching surfaces and objects.
- Cover your coughs and sneezes with a tissue or using the back of your elbow.
- Do not touch your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed and uncleaned hands.
- Always clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces.
How to Take Care of Yourself
As a primary caregiver, it is essential to know how to take care of yourself and keep yourself healthy, especially at this time of the pandemic. To take care of others, you must be feeling well and thinking clearly.
Here are some helpful tips on how to take care of yourself:
- Eat a healthy diet.
- Avoid using drugs or drinking alcohol.
- Get enough sleep.
- Have regular exercise to help reduce stress and anxiety. You can take a walk or have stretching exercises.
- Maintain a routine. Eat meals or at regular times or put yourself on a sleep schedule.
- Lessen your exposure from watching, reading, or listening to news stories, including social media.
- Take some time off to unwind and try to do the activities you love.
- Keep in touch with your family and friends, and share your concerns and feelings about the situation to avoid stress build-up.
- Find a local support group.
- Have a backup caregiver. In case you get infected with COVID-19, a backup caregiver will ensure that your loved one continues to receive care.
If you are caring for someone sick at home
- Provide basic needs
- Always ensure that the person is drinking lots of fluids and getting enough rest.
- See to it that they follow their doctor’s instructions for care and medicine.
- Check if over-the-counter medications can help lower fever and help the person feel better.
- Provide help with grocery shopping, filling prescriptions, and getting other items they may need. You can also consider delivery services so you won’t have to go out of the house.
Who needs to quarantine?
- You should stay at home if you had close contact with a person with COVID-19 up to 14 days after your last contact with them.
What counts as close contact?
- You were within six feet around the person who has COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more
- You have taken care of someone who is sick with COVID-19 at home
- You had direct physical contact with the person, such as kissing and hugging
- You shared eating or drinking utensils
- They sneezed, coughed, or somehow got respiratory droplets on you
Stay home and monitor your health.
- Monitor for fever (100.4◦F), cough, shortness of breath, or other symptoms of COVID-19
- If possible, stay away from others, especially to people who are at higher risk of getting very sick from COVID-19. Stay in a separate room, if possible.
For more updates about the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit the CDC’s website at www.cdc.gov.