STAY HOME STAY SAFE

Why staying at home is so important

Last week, it was reported that the number of COVID-19-related deaths could be lower than originally estimated as people are following social distancing and stay-at-home guidelines.

The primary way COVID-19 spreads is through close contact between individuals. The virus is transmitted when droplets from an infected person enter a non-infected person’s mouth or are inhaled into his or her lungs. This can occur through coughing, sneezing or talking.

Social distancing can make it harder for the virus to spread, as the droplets are unlikely to travel too far. However, there is still a risk. Following stay-at-home orders reduces the risk even more by removing human contact, except with family members in the home.

While there are other factors that impact how the virus spreads, isolating is one of the most important things someone can do to help avoid infection or becoming a carrier. Here are some tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about keeping yourself safe in this situation:

• Follow guidance from your local authorities
• Use home delivery for medication and groceries, if possible
• If you need to go out in public, stay at least 6 feet away from others and cover your mouth and nose with a cloth face cover
• Work from home, if you can
• Avoid using any kind of public transportation, ridesharing or taxis as much as possible

During your time at home, it’s still important to practice good hygiene, take extra care keeping your home clean and to be cautious and safe when handling deliveries and packages.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) tweeted methods of protection from coronavirus:

1.    Maintain good hygiene by constantly washing hands with soap and cleaning them with hand sanitizers, especially after coughing, sneezing or using toilets, before handling or preparing food and after contact with patients or their personal belongings to prevent against coronavirus.
2.    Avoid direct hand contact with eyes and nose as much as possible.
3.    Wear masks in  the heavily crowded areas.
4.    An advice for the doctors too - Avoid as much as possible contact with patients and their personal tools and use masks.
5.    When coughing and sneezing, use tissues to cover mouth and nose. After that, dispose the used tissue in the trash can. Then wash your hands thoroughly and properly. When you sneeze and there are no tissues available, use the upper part of your arms to cover your mouth and nose and avoid using your hands.
6.    Maintain good hygiene habits in general to prevent against coronavirus.
7.    Wash vegetable and fruits very well before eating them.
8.    Keeping a good healthy diet and exercising along with other healthy habits, in addition to having enough sleep, will enhance the body's immunity system.

Indoor games to play with your family

1. Word Whiz

Now, this is a great game to engage the kids of the house, it is an interesting game that also helps in the vocabulary development of your child. For this game, you need a dictionary, paper and a pencil/pen. Each player gets a chance to read out a word from the dictionary and ask the players to write the meaning of that word on their sheet. The player who gets the dictionary chooses a word which they think the other players don't know about. This way, the definition that matches or is close to the word wins. The player with the highest point wins the game. 

2.Freeze

This is such an entertaining game! One member of the family will be playing the music, facing the wall. All the other members will be dancing to the tunes and when the music stops, all of them need to freeze in that position, be it anything. The player who fails to freeze their position loses and then it is their turn to play the music.

4. Name Place Animal Thing

All you need to do to play this fun mind game is get ready with a sheet of paper and pen. Divide your sheet into 4 sections, Name (1), Place (2), Animal (3) and Thing (4). Now one player randomly selects a letter for you and you need to write down in all the columns. This is a fun game that is enjoyed by both kids and adults alike. If you fill in the categories with your right answer then you get a point, if not, you don't get anything. The player with the highest points wins the game. 

5. Twenty Questions

20 questions is an oldie as compared to indoor games we play today but it is always something exciting about this game. When the entire family is sitting along, this is one game that will take away all the boredom. Make one person think of anything, it can be about an object, a person or just anything. All the other members of the family get 20 questions in total to guess what that person is thinking about. Interesting right?

6. Dumb Charades

The movie guessing game is so entertaining! The players are not allowed to speak but they need to act the name of the movie with different gestures or their body language. You can give the players the title of any movie of your choice and they should make sure that the other members of the team understand it while they act. If not movies, you also do a guessing game around books, famous personalities or even TV shows. 

8.Pictionary

Pictionary is an interesting mind game where you need to guess the right word from the picture drawn by the player from another team. Divide your family into two groups or ask any member to go and draw a picture of something on a paper or board and then you guess! The team or player who guesses the word right wins the game!

9. Guess The Sound

Guessing games are always fun and so is this one! In this game, you need to collect some objects that make a sound. Keep them in a box and then ask all the players to blindfold. One player will have to make a sound from the object and then ask the players to guess what it is. Blindfolded players will have to guess the object and one who does it first wins the round. Continue it with all the objects. 

10. Chinese Whisper

This is a fun, challenging game. Sit in a circle and it begins with one person whispering something into the ear of the person sitting next to them. Use long phrases. This message has to continue until it reaches the last person. It gets tricky with it is a long, complicated phrase. 

Coronavirus (COVID-19) statistics

Karnataka cases

Updated 9 May at 2:04 pm local

Confirmed

18,86,448

+47,563

Deaths

18,286

+482

Recovered

13,19,301

+34,881

India cases

Updated 9 May at 2:04 pm local

Confirmed

2,22,96,414

+4,09,688

Deaths

2,42,399

+4,133

Recovered

1,83,11,686

+3,94,456

See breakdown

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Global cases

Updated 9 May at 2:04 pm local

Confirmed

15,72,63,259

+8,29,613

Deaths

32,78,629

+14,755

Recovered

9,33,12,421

+7,15,320