My mother and sisters keep breaking quarantine and leaving the windows and doors open... where I live had no cases at the start of the month to at least 40 now. I think I'm going to just hide in my room and not let anyone see/go near me.
The virus is spread by people, so just having the doors and windows open to let in fresh air is not an issue as long as you don't have random people walking in through that door and coughing in your windows.
i just want to go for a walk in my local park but i guess we live in a society where that's too much to ask. :s just to get some fresh air and whatnot.
Going outside is OK but it's important to keep your social distance. The virus is spread mostly by people expelling their respiratory fluids by coughing or sneezing into tiny droplets, which will fall towards the ground because of gravity up to a distance of about 6 feet, so try to keep that distance, if not more, if you can from another person when you're out in public. As long as you're not closely congregating with people in groups, going outside is safe, and to be honest we all need to get our sunlight and exercise as more and more things get shut down. Where I live it's not too packed, and I was able to run for half an hour without getting close to another person.
I'm surprised that there have been 21 replies to this thread and the term "social distancing" has not popped up even a single time. I don't know where you guys have been getting your information, but it's important to get informed, and you may have to look for non-US sources of news, as unfortunately the delay of the US government acting will mean that COVID-19 will continue to get worse for the foreseeable future. Chances are that we may be looking to many months to over a year before all this is over. Make sure that not just your family, but your social circle and your community are educated because a pandemic like this requires a community effort to fight.
I can't say enough for y'all in the states, it's going to get worse. It only looks better than places like Asia and Europe because the US was exposed to the virus later than those other countries, meaning you too will progress closer to that point in the future. Chances are most of you guys here will be relatively fine, individually speaking, because the demographic here tends to be young, and up to 80% of those infected with the virus will not show symptoms. But that means the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, especially those that compromise the immune system, are at much greater risk, and doubly so because those 80% of people who don't show symptoms can still spread the virus.
The worst part about the virus is how quickly it spreads. The virus can be deadly in and of itself, but by causing a large enough people to get sick it can overwhelm the healthcare system, and people will die because there was not enough healthcare resources to go around. Therefore, many of these potential deaths are PREVENTABLE!
Until we get a vaccine and produce and deliver it to 60%+ of the population (which is probably many months away) the only way to protect the most vulnerable of our community is to practice social distancing. Please, please, please spread the word. Don't go out where other people gather if you don't need to - getting food, medicine, and other necessities is OK. Pubs, movie theatres, and other such places where people gather would be high risk area for transmitting the virus. If you have to be out in public, try to keep that 6 feet distance. Practice good hand hygeine, which means washing your hands with water AND soap (a good lather will dissolve the virus allowing you to rinse it away). Hand sanitizer works too in a pinch. And keep in touch with your community and loved ones because we'll all need to keep our spirits up during these trying times. If we all work together, we will be saving lives.