COVID-19 – What You Need to Do When You Need to Leave Your Home for an Essential Issue

Since we are likely to be in a “Shelter in place” status through the end April and possibly through May or June, here are some steps to remember to keep you and your loved ones as safe as possible.

First a couple of recommendations to follow.

RECOMMENDATION 0: … DO NOT TOUCH YOUR FACE … at any time while you are away from home, and then only after you have returned home and washed your hands multiple times. COVID-19 investigators have determined that a very large majority of the infections studied come from touching your face after touching something or being in close proximity to someone that has the COVID-19 virus for a lengthy period of time. It has been reported that COVID-19 can remain alive on some surfaces for 9-14 days and in some surfaces for more than 30 days. Be aware of your surroundings and don't touch anything you don't have to.

RECOMMENDATION 1: When in a Shelter-in-Place during this Pandemic, ... Always leave and return through one door in and out of your home. Keep the process simple. Next to this door inside your home or apartment, place a small table or use your hall-tree, or tabletop of the cabinet next to the door. Keep your shoes next to this door. Put them on when you go out. Take them off after you re-enter and leave them next to the door. Get a pad of paper and a pen/pencil to make notes to keep next to the door, a pack of disinfectant wipes, a box of sandwich bags, a bottle of hand sanitizer, and a box of nitrile, latex, plastic, or a pair of rubber dish washing gloves, to use when you are out and about accomplishing the tasks you need to do while away from your home. A good substitute for gloves, are simple 12x12 food bags that use twister seals. Some stores provide plastic bags in the produce section that will work. Keep a few rubber bands handy to use to keep the makeshift gloves(bags) on your hands. Take a few extra home (if you can), to use on your next trip. 

NOTE: This is not a fashion statement, no one will care what kind, color, or type of gloves or masks you are using, even if they are simplistic in design. If you have masks, keep new and clean ones ready to be picked up on your way out along with the gloves.

RECOMMENDATION 2: If you drive a vehicle, car, truck, etc., keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in the door storage slots, center console, or glove box to use each time you get in the car after leaving an establishment. Keep a logbook and record the date/time and location of where you are. Include descriptions of any individuals that you come in-contact with, by design, or accident. Include details if they were wearing protective items, such as masks, gloves, face shields, etc., and especially if they were coughing or sneezing or looked like they were not well. Just as in a pilot’s log book, details are important and may be critical sometime in the future.

 I’m not licensed pilot, but I have flown some aircraft, and have been trained to follow a series of check-lists for pre-flight-external; pre-flight-cockpit, start-up, taxi, take-off, in-flight, landing, parking and shutdown. These procedures are memorized and also kept in a flight book on the plane to be checked-and followed, verified, or reviewed before, during and after every flight. They are never omitted or forgotten because once you are flying at altitude, “you” have to control the plane and fly it back down to land if anything goes wrong. Everything related to the plane, outside, inside, while it is moving or stationary, on the ground or in flight, must be maintained as perfect as possible in order to keep it under control, which keeps yourself and others around you, as safe as possible. Remember, as my instructors have stated, … “There are no service stations in the sky”. You can’t simply pull over to check the oil or air in a tire.

I have put this “check-list” together to share with all to help keep you safe and prevent infection and proliferation of the COVID-19 disease. It is based on current “best practices”, known and collected over the last two weeks. I have tried to keep it as simple as possible, yet as protective as can be.

PRE-TRIP CHECKLIST

1.     Do you really need to make this trip now?  Can this task be added to a list, and executed when there are several tasks to complete that require leaving your home and accomplish them all in one trip? If this can be added to a list, do so. Make the list and add to it, using the paper and pen next to the door. Otherwise continue to the next step. 

This is to minimize the number of times you need to leave your home and potentially put yourself in jeopardy of potentially being infected with the COVID-19 virus.

2.     Do you have an extra sandwich sized plastic bag to hold some disinfectant wipes? Always carry an extra bag to hold some disinfectant wipes that you can get as you enter most stores. Put them in the bag so they don’t dry out as you complete your task or tasks at each location.

3.     Do you need to take some disinfectant wipes with you? Some establishments do not provide them as you enter through their doors. Always take a few with you if you don’t know if an establishment does.

4.     Do you have your protective gloves, or bags? If not, get them and put them in an extra plastic bag.

5.     Lock your door, and/or the garage door when you leave. Don’t want to make it easy for an unwanted intruder.

6.     If your vehicle is outside where others can touch it, use a disinfectant wipe to clean the door handle before unlocking the door and entering the vehicle.

7.     REMEMBER above all, … DO NOT TOUCH YOUR FACE, … until you get back home and can clean your hands thoroughly.

Post the above steps on an index card and paste it to the door of your home that you will use to exit and enter each time you leave.

TRAVEL CHECK-LIST

1.     Travel to your destination and remember, … DON’T TOUCH YOUR FACE while you are out.

2.     Park and as you leave the vehicle, or if you are walking and about to enter the establishment you are visiting, put on your gloves before touching a cart, basket or the entrance door handle. 

3.     As you enter the establishment, look for any complementary disinfectant wipes, most grocery stores provide them next to the entrance. Other establishments are slowly getting into the habit of providing them. (If they don’t ask the manager to provide them. If they don’t, in the future think about going to a location that does). Grab 3-4 of them. Use one to clean the cart or basket handle and put the others in the plastic sandwich bag you brought from home. Seal it so they don’t dry out before you complete your shopping. You will use them to clean the objects you need to touch. Cans, sealed packages, etc., as you pick them up to examine and put them in the cart.

4.     If you don’t have any gloves, your first stop at a grocery store should be the produce department. Most stores will have some produce bags on a large roll for you to use when picking out individual fruits and veggies. These bags will work as gloves, with a rubber band around your wrist to keep them in place. Remember, "DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE" with or without gloves, while you are out of your home.

5.     Remember to keep your “social distance” (6ft) from others. Some stores are marking the floors with tape every 6 feet as a reference. If you must walk by someone in an aisle, turn your face away from them and hold your breath as you enter and traverse that 6ft invisible space they are standing in. Resume breathing after you clear their space. This is not to be rude. It is to be safe in these exceptional times. Sneezes and coughs can sneak up on you, or them, and it's best that anything strikes you on something other than your face.

6.     If someone enters your 6ft barrier, turn away from them and don’t take a breath. Resume breathing when the 6ft barrier is cleared. If they are being rude and are not respecting the social distance, and don’t simply pass through your space, walk away, and return later, when they are no longer there. Complain to the manager to alert the establishment if you see the same person invading the space of others, as there will be those that don’t care.

Remember, invading the space of another is not walking by them. It is stopping and remaining in their space. While you would like to keep that 6ft of distance between you and them at all times, there will be times when this is not possible, so keep moving and looking away from them. If they do the same, the chance of passing any infection will be minimized.

7.     If the item you need to get is next to an individual, wait for them to move out of the 6ft zone around the item. If they are taking too much time, walk by them or turn around and go pickup another item and return a few minutes later to pick up the item they were blocking. Never brush up to or stop next to someone to pick something off the shelf. If you clearly can't walk around them, turn around and come back later.

8.     Before entering your car, take another disinfectant wipe and clean your door handle. This is just being safe, you don’t know if someone that has the COVID-19 virus, was touching your door handle.

9.     Put your gloves back in the designated plastic sandwich bag before getting into your car.

10.  After entering the car, use some Hand Disinfectant to clean your hands and remember, “DON’T TOUCH YOUR FACE”

11.  Repeat these steps 1 through 10, for each stop you need to make on this trip while out of your home.

              Post the above on an index card or paper and tape it to the dash of your vehicle.

POST-TRIP CHECK-LIST - RETURNING HOME

1.     When you arrive at home, use a disinfectant wipe to clean the steering wheel and door handles of the car as you get out and close it’s door.

2.     Clean the door handle/nob of the entrance to your home before you open it.

3.     Take your shoes off at the entrance of the house, just inside the door.

4.     Wipe the soles of your shoes with the disinfectant wipes. This is to minimize tracking anything that may carry the COVID-19 virus into your house. Leave your shoes next to the door. There is no need to walk around the house and tracking anything you missed. Including the COVID-19 virus.

5.     Place the wipes back in the plastic bag.

6.     Discard the plastic bags of used wipes/gloves into a waste basket just outside the entrance to your home. 

If you want or need to re-use your nitrile, latex, plastic or rubber gloves, you can soak and clean them in dish soap, rinse them off and dry them, inside and out. Once dry, you can sprinkle some talcum or baby powder into the inside of the glove and hold the opening closed and shake it up. This will help make it easier to put on a 2nd time. When you plan on using them again, clean your hands with some hand sanitizer and let it dry before putting them on.

 Post the above on the outside of your door to remind you of these steps as you re-enter your home.

RECOMMENDATION 3: If at all possible, leave your loved ones at home, kids, seniors, and especially pets, such as dogs. It has been shown that some pets can contract COVID-19 and be carriers. (It is stated that COVID-19 originated in animals). If you are a single parent or caregiver, managing kids, and/or seniors, can be troublesome. Try to use a trusted caregiver to watch your them while you are out. If you can’t get a caregiver, ask someone you trust to do the tasks for you. A relative, brother, sister, or parent, best friend, or neighbor. Use a shopping/delivery service, if one is available. Make your list specific and detailed when using another person to do your tasks.

If you must take your kids with you, try to keep things simple. Go at the earliest time possible. Keep your kids in the cart at grocery stores. Wipe it down thoroughly before placing them in it; and carry extra disinfectant wipes to wipe their hands. If the store offers kiddie carts, where they can ride and be strapped in, use it. Wipe everything and be detailed and thorough.

-       -    -

The above may seem like an extreme process, but keep in mind, COVID-19 is a killer disease. It is infecting ALL ages, young and old, and it has killed some individuals that did not appear to have any pre-existing conditions. Not just those that do or are elderly. Another concern, … Your local medical facilities may not have the resources to take care of an infection if and when you, or your family members, or anyone else, get infected, they may be overloaded. Call ahead and have a backup plan, a second medical facility destination if your primary one is not taking anymore.

Even if someone has no symptoms, they may be a carrier of the disease. Don’t assume anything. Stay informed. Watch your local news, and national news organizations. Visit the World Heath Organization at https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019, and the CDC’s website at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html to keep up to date on the latest COVID-19 information. Look up your local community websites for local updates for the area you live in. 

ABOVE ALL, don't trust social media. It's full of comments from individuals that heard something from someone that is a friend of someone that works with a doctor that knows, ??? BE AWARE of your local government's information. That with the WHO and CDC should keep you up to date with the latest and correct information.

If you were to come down with COVID-19, keep updated on what the local authorities want you to do. Your local doctor’s office may not be open and may not be seeing patients and the local hospital emergency room services, may not have room to accept you. Stay informed on this! Create a primary and back-up plan now, before you need it.

Given the above, keeping a strict routine to protect you and your loved ones from infection is tantamount. 

Do not be afraid to ask for help, if you need it. Parents, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, neighbors, friends and clergy should be called if you need help. Keep their numbers handy. If you don’t have anyone of the above, you can call the local Chamber of Commerce and they can point you to a local aid organization. Or you can call the Red Cross or the Salvation Army, and they will find someone nearby that can assist you. Get these numbers together, ... BE PREPARED for anything.

Be compassionate to those in need. Keep in contact with your neighbors by speaking to them when you see them outside while keeping your social distance. Ask them if they need anything and if they do and you can help, assist from a distance. You don’t have to apologize for the distancing they should understand. 

Make a list of the local agencies that can provide help to those in need. Leave the list on their door. If needed or asked, make some phone calls on their behalf. If you do, try and be as detailed as possible in describing their needs.  If you can, be their hands and feet to do their shopping. If they need food or supplies that you can provide leave them on their doorstep. Knock and step back and away at least 6ft, and wait until they open the door and retrieve it. 

 I am an engineer by nature and profession. Procedures are a part of getting things done and repeating the same process over and over as many times as needed, successfully. This process may seem a bit overkill to some. It isn’t, as the COVID-19 virus is deadly to some of us. Saving as many lives as possible is paramount in this process. Setting the time frames of infection, mutation, and a cure are all controlled by the COVID-19 virus. Nothing else. Not the government, not your doctor, not the CDC. This may seem cruel, but we have no control over COVID-19, yet.

As an engineer, and troubleshooting, all big problems can be broken down into smaller problems, then each of these smaller problems broken down again and repeating this process until you have the simplest of terms to work with. There are many organizations around the world currently working and sharing the information they collect and observe to do just that, breaking down the components into their simplest terms to gain control of COVID-19. 

In these times, we must be vigilant and listen to those that are orchestrating the search for a cure while a vaccine or drug is developed that eradicates and prevents COVID-19 from infecting our bodies. Until then, this procedure is the best I could come up with to keep us safe, short of stepping into an environmentally controlled bubble that few of us can afford.

We are all in this together, so help your family, neighbors and friends if they call and ask. Most of them will not ask unless it is an emergency. When they do, you must take the necessary action to help them. When you visit someone, take precautions, wear a mask and gloves if possible, and practice social distancing. If they are sick, keep your distance, and if they need to see a doctor or go to the hospital, and you can’t help or take them, call 911, and let the professionals handle it.