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From 1 to 10, what is the risk of catching coronavirus in daily activities

2020-08-22T10:52:37.816Z


Experts from the Texas Medical Association put together a ranking. His Argentine colleagues warn that the main danger is the relaxed attitude.


Irene Hartmann

08/22/2020 - 7:01

  • Clarín.com
  • Society

The Texas Medical Association developed a ranking table that links moments of everyday life (memoriesof the "old normal") with different degrees of risk of contracting coronavirus. The items were thought according to the American public, but they can be transferred to the Argentine reality. And although they are distributed in a logical way that might seem obvious to some, it does not hurt, thinking about the "new normal", to refresh the almost harmless activities in contrast to others with greater exposure, which many tend to underestimate.

Looking at the list, a first cross - sectional puts aside activities indoors and in the other, which developed the outdoors, the doctors -repiten involving lower risk of contagion Covid-19. However, for Gloria De La Parra, head of Infectious Diseases at Hospital San Martín de La Plata, "what really has more weight is the individual attitude ", a point on which doctors do not stop insisting, judging by the carelessness of many evident on the street.


"One could say that going to the beach has moderate risk, but as long as the people who meet are wearing chinstraps and at the recommended distance, because if several are going to gather to make a sand castle without taking precautions ... ”, He left the ellipsis open.

The problem of the second wave in Spain, he analyzed, are the difficulties in relation to this attitude: “You see it in certain groups. Boys are the transmission vector, adolescents wear the chinstrap as if it were a bib, under the chin, and older adults, due to the heat, cannot tolerate wearing the chinstrap because they suffocate ”.

In short, he summarized, "many things in daily life, in general, can be done if social distance is maintained and the use of protection and hygiene items is maintained."

In the table prepared by the Texas experts, some activities are mentioned that do not seem to have a direct local correlation, but "you can look for similar activities," said De La Parra. "Obviously no one here goes to the corner and plays basketball, but what reflects that is the risk of team sports," he compared.

Along the same lines, the first item on the list, supposedly very low risk, is not typical of the local culture: opening envelopes or packages that arrive by mail , something that in the United States is common currency, due to the greater spread of electronic commerce . However, Clarín  consulted Arnaldo Casiró , head of Infectious Diseases at Hospital Álvarez: "For my part, I throw 70% alcohol into everything. I think it's something simple and it doesn't hurt to take this precaution. This disease taught us to have intense hygiene habits. Argentines are not particularly dirty, but it is leading us to have more strict hygiene habits, which is not bad, "said the expert about the care when handling something we buy.  

Images of August, with social distancing almost totally relaxed in the forests of Palermo. Photo Germán García Adrasti

De La Parra analyzed the matter differently. She explained that, in her private life, she does not wash, as many do, every item she brings from the supermarket, for example. “But every time I touch something I bought, I wash my hands. I cook food or hair it, if it is a fruit ... We have not seen people who have been infected by eating ice cream or by contact with supermarket products . It is something that had already been seen ”.

The waiting room

An item in the Texas ranking that could raise doubts is the waiting room to see the doctor , considered a risk level 4, taking the maximum possible as 10. Perhaps in Argentina we have to talk about some nuances in this area ...

“There are waiting rooms and waiting rooms. We treat very few patients in person and on duty. Before entering, you clean your shoes on a cloth with 10% bleach, you come with a chinstrap, you wash your hands and you come alone. But perhaps in another place there are many more people waiting and the conditions are different, ”explained Casiró.

According to De La Parra, “it is much easier to maintain distance in a public hospital, I am not saying a totally deprived area where half the neighborhood consults in the corresponding room, but in a large public hospital, which usually have large spaces in which distance it's possible. On the other hand, in sanatoriums or private clinics, sometimes the building issue is very small or they are old buildings with small spaces and they take turns, but many people go at the same time. The economic also weighs ”.

Some do sports outside of the allowed hours and others walk without a chinstrap, in the city of Buenos Aires. Photo Germán García Adrasti

Casiró added the issue of the world of work (risk level 6, according to the list): “Many companies consult us and the truth is that, although risks obviously exist, people are not infected as much as one would believe in those spaces. The biggest problem occurs when people  relax and are careless . We see this even in health workers ”.

Thus, thinking about leisure spaces (a bowling alley, a restaurant, a bar), “the more people gather in a place, the more risk there is that someone will break the rules due to carelessness . And if you have 200 people together and some have the chinstrap under their nose, it doesn't help. But not that you walk down the street and, to chat with the other, directly take off your mask ".

"It is a matter of  common sense ," stressed De La Parra. “You open an envelope, you wash your hands and you forget about the problem. The focus is on how each one handles himself, in the meetings and in maintaining the distance ”.

ACE

Source: clarin

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