Recommendations for staying safe.

1. Stay at home in your "safe zone” as much as you can.
   1. Avoid public transportation. Walk, use your car.
   2. Avoid closed spaces with A/C.  
   3. Stay the recommended social distancing of 6 feet from others.
2. Avoid contact with people without face masks
   1. People without face masks are a risk for you and for your close ones. Encourage everyone to wear a face mask or at the very least a bandana to help reduce the spread of droplets.
   2. Droplets can spread a long distance. According to research by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), it’s not just the person next to us we should worry about: coughing spreads droplets as far as six meters (about 18 feet), and sneezing as much as eight meters. (about 25 feet.) These droplets stay suspended in the air for up to 10 minutes.
3. Sanitize hands after touching anything outside
   1. Wash your hands often with soap and water.  Don’t forget to clean the thumb and between the fingers.  Wash for at least 20 seconds.
   2. Sanitize your hands with alcohol if soap is not available.  60 % alcohol has been recommended though some reports say 70% or higher is needed.  Also do not rub the alcohol off.  It needs to sit on the skin for a while.  Use plenty of it with each use.
   3. Expect that everything outside of your “Safe Zone” is contaminated. Don't touch your eyes or face.
   4. On metals, plastics, and cardboard the virus can persist for days.
   5. Disinfect your cell phone.
   6. Try not to use money.  With the pores in cash paper, viruses can stay and thrive for around 17 days.  Try using Lysol or disinfectant on the money.  Better yet use a card and clean it often.  Again don’t use a microwave on money – it will be destroyed.
   7. You can create your own disinfection, ideally 70% alcohol or higher.
4. Always wear a face mask outside (even homemade)
   1. A used face mask should be treated as contaminated. Disinfect or boil it. Most have metal in the nose piece so don’t use a microwave.
   2. Our masks have a filter recommend by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the closest we can get to a N95 filter.  They recommend a 0.3 micron HEPA filter.  If you purchase a N95 filter you can place it inside the mask.
   3. Slower breathing increases the efficiency of any face mask.
5. Protect your eyes with any glasses
   1. Protecting your eyes is as essential as the protection of your breath.

 
This was a modification of an email from Myrtle Meeks, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the CDC.