The highly contagious coronavirus variant B.1.1.7 in the UK is beginning to spread across the United States, making the already difficult task of slowing the virus even more challenging. With recent studies confirming that the new variant of the virus is significantly more transmissible than the current dominant COVID strain in the United States, some experts warn that it is safer to immediately stop doing certain activities to avoid the new COVID strain. Read on to see what you should stay away from as the pandemic spreads, and for an update on where the UK variant is already, check out The new COVID strain is now in these 12 states.
Read the original article at Better life.
As COVID becomes more contagious, some of the basic activities that may have returned to our routines are now too dangerous to continue. “The best protection is still to avoid contact with other people inside the home, especially for an extended period of time,” Stephen Goldstein, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Utah, told Vox.
But that doesn’t just mean avoiding social gatherings or dining out with friends: it also means limiting time with strangers while performing essential daily tasks and activities to decrease your exposure time. “Shopping for five minutes at the supermarket is much better – six times better – than shopping for 30 minutes,” Tom Frieden, MD, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), told Vox. “Picking up groceries on the sidewalk is even better, and delivering is even better.” And to learn more about how you can stay safe, see These 3 things that can prevent almost all COVID cases, study findings.
Unfortunately, the finding that a highly contagious strain is currently spreading across the United States means that certain activities considered too risky in the early days of the pandemic are likely to be very dangerous. As long as infection rates remain high, the risk of transmission can turn almost all internal tasks into a risk of exposure.
“Maybe if I’m in New Zealand [where new virus cases have mostly hovered below 20 per day for months], I can cut my hair, ” Julie Swann, PhD, a professor at North Carolina State University who studied the effectiveness of the COVID-19 mask, told Vox. “But I wouldn’t personally cut my hair if there was a virus that is 50% more transmissible spreading where I live,” she added, referring to the transmissibility of the strain from the UK. And to find out more about who is susceptible, check out the CDC Says that If You Are This Age, Now You Are More Likely To Get COVID.
Even though recent discoveries about mutant versions of the virus may make certain behaviors more risky, there is actually not much that has changed in terms of what should be avoided – that is, not staying indoors with other people, especially without wearing a mask. . Doing activities outside, however, is still a relatively safer option, even considering the contagious character of the new variant.
“There seems to be some uproar about the need to be more cautious about broadcasting outdoors, but I don’t know where it came from,” Richard Lessells, MD, an infectious disease specialist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, said Vox. “Based on the evidence, we still think that the risk of transmission outdoors is substantially less than indoors, and there is no reason to believe that the new variants will change this equation substantially.” And for more regular news from COVID, subscribe to our daily newsletter.
But it doesn’t end just by avoiding being indoors with other people. Ashish Jha, MD, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, says that a precaution that can be improved is the quality of the mask. “High quality masks are really important, “he said during a Jan. 8 interview with NBC.” We didn’t do much to make high quality masks – it’s something we still need to work on. “
The next time you replace your mask, do some research to make sure it will protect you as much as possible. And for the masks to be avoided, see The CDC has issued a warning against these 4 facial covers.