Time to learn how to live with COVID-19 : DAK

Excelsior Correspondent Srinagar, June 3: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) today said the COVID-19 pandemic is not going to go away and we are going to live with the virus. President DAK, Dr Suhail Naik said that it is time to learn, educate, inform and communicate to the general public how we all are going to live with COVID-19. He said while coming out of lockdown, it is important to understand how we can live with the novel virus, while allowing the social sector and economies to reopen. "The future course of life will be totally different from pre-COVID-19 and two-meter physical distancing, "mask for all" and hand washing are now new norms of life," he said. Dr Naik said keeping in view the high communicability of the virus it seems whenever in future any deviation from health advisories or overcrowding is given a chance, the virus will flourish and resulting consequences will be alarming. "The threat of the virus will not allow any big social or religious gatherings like marriage functions, school and college assemblies and pilgrimage," he said. DAK said there will be protocol based life for marriages, religious gatherings, offices, passengers traveling in buses, trains and planes adding the challenge lies in how to adopt new norms of life. While coming out of lockdown, people need to take into account the role of both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals spreading the virus in the community. "Both commercially available and homemade cloth masks and surgical masks can play a role," it said. DAK appealed to people to strictly follow hand washing, face masks, and physical distancing and which are very important measures towards reopening economies safely from coronavirus lockdowns. DAK said that Face masks may play an important role in situations where social distancing is not possible or unpredictable. It said that the situations include public transport, stores, and shopping areas, workplaces, within households, clinics, hospitals, care homes, social care, and busy pavements.