From sleeping in separate beds to grandparents avoiding their grandchildren: How to keep a safe social distance in the home in order to stop the spread of coronavirus
- Australians are being urged to maintain a 1.5-metre distance in public places
- Government notices are also advising people to avoid physical contact at home
- Infectious diseases expert Sharon Lewin urged grandparents to avoid grandkids
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
Australians are being urged to practise social distancing not just in the public places but at home – making some couples sleep in separate beds.
Government notices in shopping malls and in newspapers are advising everyone to maintain a 1.5-metre space.
Grandparents are also being urged to avoid physical contact with their grandchildren.
Australians are being urged to practice social distancing not just in the public places but at home – creating a situation where couples have to sleep separately
Jesse Giles, a 13-year-old boy from Tambar Springs in northern New South Wales, put this question to a panel of infectious diseases experts on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night.
‘My question is, if me and my family isolate for 14 days, can I go see my grandmother, who also is isolating? I really want to see my grandmother. Thank you,’ he said.
Professor Sharon Lewin, the director of the University of Melbourne’s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, had to disappoint him.
Grandparents are also being urged to avoid physical contact with their grandchildren. Jesse Giles, a 13-year-old boy from Tambar Springs in northern New South Wales, put this question to a panel of infectious diseases experts on the ABC’s Q&A program
‘Yeah. Difficult one. I don’t think grandparents can babysit unless they’re practising some social distancing, and, with young kids, that’s really hard,’ she said.
Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has a global mortality rate of about three per cent.
With eight deaths in Australia so far, the mortality rate is 0.4 per cent, with 1,972 confirmed cases as of Tuesday afternoon.
For those over 80, however, the death rate is 15 to 20 per cent, Professor Lewin said.
It’s also higher than average for those over 60, with a mortality rate of three to five per cent.
‘Older people have a much worse outcome from COVID-19,’ Professor Lewin said.
‘So that’s why there’s this great effort to protect the elderly, and particularly the very elderly.’
Professor Lewin declined to advise couples on whether they should sleep in separate beds, with the Peter Doherty Institute referring Daily Mail Australia to state and federal health departments.
So far, health authorities are only advising couples to sleep in separate beds if they are in self isolation for coronavirus, the ABC reports.
Government notices in shopping malls and in newspapers are advising everyone to maintain a 1.5-metre space