Social distance during a coronavirus pandemic – why is it so important?

“Let’s be reasonable and spend the next two weeks in maximum isolation.” – urged the health minister in recent days. “By doing so, we have a chance to save the lives of others. We need to reduce our contacts by 80 percent, and only then do we have a chance to influence the growth of disease and death,” he assessed.

Social distancing is a term applied to certain actions taken by public health officials to stop or slow the spread of a highly contagious disease.

To prevent overloading the public health care system, physical “social distancing” of the entire population is necessary. This is a kind of epidemic suppression strategy to help stop or slow the spread of infectious diseases.

Learn from mistakes

Social distancing measures include restrictions on large groups of people meeting, closing buildings, cancelling events.

Health experts have looked at past pandemics and found that, for example, during the 1957-58 pandemic (Asian flu A/H2N2), the spread of the disease followed public gatherings such as conferences and festivals. The highest incidence rates were also observed in school-aged children, due to close contact in crowded environments.

When an epidemic (the occurrence in a given area of infections or cases of an infectious disease in numbers markedly greater than in earlier periods, or the onset of infections or infectious diseases hitherto uncommon) develops into a pandemic (the name for an epidemic of particularly large proportions, over a wide area, involving countries or even continents) it can no longer be contained.

The earlier social distancing measures are introduced, the greater the chance of “flattening the curve” of morbidity

Time given to medics

The slower increase in the number of severe cases gives medical personnel the time they need to care for the patients who need it most, and to ensure that they themselves do not become infected and are available at all times to the next people in need. We must also constantly keep in mind that during a pandemic, it is not only patients with coronavirus that require care, but also everyone else – both those with chronic illnesses and those with emergency, immediate needs. Thus, by implementing the principles of social distance and self-isolation, we take equal care of the needs of medical personnel as well as our own potential needs.

This is important so that no doctor or paramedic has to be quarantined and excluded from providing assistance to patients.

In addition to social distance, our truthfulness also counts – if we may have had contact with an infected person or have worrisome symptoms (fever, cough, shortness of breath), it is imperative that we inform the medics BEFORE they come to us. They will then have the opportunity to take care of appropriate personal protective equipment.

Let’s remember that those subjected, in social isolation, to the mandatory quarantine are healthy people who have had contact with those infected or suspected of being infected with the new coronavirus. Also covered are anyone who enters Poland from abroad. With the mandatory home quarantine comes an additional obligation – the use of the Home Quarantine app