In the face of these truly unprecedented times, what has stood strong in the face of coronavirus is a sense of global community. The tragic, ongoing loss of life has led to a resilience that isn’t limited by national borders. Slowing the spread of COVID-19 is all about what we can do together to keep one another safe.

At PPE Connect, we provide safe, certified personal protective equipment as a means of helping fight this disease. Since coronavirus is spread via droplets, that means covering any and all opportunity for it to reach your skin or respiratory system. That includes protective face masks, defensive glasses, and aprons.

What’s most surprising is how simple the most effective method of managing coronavirus is: keeping your distance. One of the first recommendations from healthcare providers was to enact a protocol called social distancing. We’re here to explain why that’s so important. 

What is social distancing?

When the pandemic hit its initial peak, there was so much terminology flying around that it was often difficult to figure out what each individual term meant. Lockdown, quarantine, self-isolation, social distancing; these were all words that we already knew, but being used in a different context to what we were familiar with.

Social distancing refers to the general practice of isolating yourself from others. This started at a government level, with the banning of large and small scale events, and the closure of restaurants and bars; any opportunity for numerous people to come together and potentially spread the highly infectious virus was outright halted.

Then, there were the personal measures. Social distancing is as much a mindset as it is a series of guidelines, and essentially just means avoiding any unnecessary contact with anyone outside your household. People working from home, not visiting family members and avoiding contact with anyone delivering mail is step one of this.

Then, when you must venture outside, social distancing is keeping it to essential reasons only: exercise and shopping. In each of these scenarios, wear a protective face mask if possible, keep 2 metres away from anyone not from your house, and don’t stay out for longer than is necessary. Coronavirus can’t spread if we don’t give it a chance to switch hosts. 

Why is social distancing needed?

Some of these measures have been hard for people to get their heads around, especially since governments seem to disagree country-to-country, and often with their own prior advice. The main thing to bear in mind is to avoid unnecessary exposure; any and all of your actions can be informed by that one guiding principle. 

But why is social distancing so important? Let’s break down the main reasons why social distancing is possibly the most effective tool against the ongoing spread of COVID-19.

1. It flattens the curve of infection 

This is the main reason social distancing is so important when dealing with coronavirus. Like flu and other respiratory illnesses, it’s very difficult to prevent COVID-19 entirely. However, what we can do is flatten the curve of infection and mean that our resources are better able to handle the influx of patients.

Not only does this massively impact the number of fatalities due to lowering infection rates, it also means better care for those in hospitals already, and a better chance of them pulling through and surviving coronavirus. If all we have to do to help those in need is stay at home, isn’t that worth it?

2. It protects those most at risk

As we just said, if staying at home where possible means helping those most at risk, why wouldn’t we? There have been some calls for measures where the vulnerable—either the elderly or those with existing autoimmune and respiratory conditions—are the only ones who isolate, but that misses the point.

By all distancing ourselves from others, even when we do have to go in public, we create a visible system that saves lives. It’s a reminder that there are people carrying the disease all around us, and that in order to protect one another, we just need to keep our distance and wear a protective mask. By also giving those at risk priority access to stores and services, we help those most in need. 

3. It requires simple social action

The cost to infrastructure is massive, but as an actual performed act social distancing is a really simple one. It’s something we can all do, and can all play our part in. That’s not to say that businesses and people aren’t struggling due to the economic repercussions, but it’s significant in that it can work at a grassroots level. 

Even in a society approaching normal working lives, the practice of social distancing as well as using quality PPE will help us avoid a second spike in coronavirus cases. By working together, hopefully we can see just how important every individual globally is, and make sure more of those individuals survive this outbreak.

Buying personal protective equipment

A big part of social distancing efforts in the months to come will be buying PPE and using it appropriately. This is going to be a communal effort through and through, which makes every person’s input of great value.

At PPE Connect we only stock certified protective equipment, because we value every person’s safety. Whether you’re looking for face shields, hand sanitiser, protective goggles or face masks, we’ve got quality, cost-effective PPE products for you right now.