What You Can Do
- If you feel sick in the slightest way, stay away from competitions, work, and so forth. We will make accommodations to fill in the gaps at events and engagements. Your health comes first!
- Symptoms of the coronavirus include mild to severe respiratory illness, a fever, coughing, shortness of breath, a sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, body aches, a headache, chills, and fatigue. If you exhibit symptoms, you should contact a health care professional rather than going straight to an urgent care or a medical office. This way, you can be assessed over the phone, and if there is a concern, proper infection safety precautions are taken so as not to expose others.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that employees remain at home until at least 24 hours after you are free of fever (100 degrees F or 37.8 degrees C) or signs of a fever without the use of fever-reducing medications. Many times, with the best of intentions, employees report to work even though they feel ill. We provide paid sick time and other benefits to compensate employees who are unable to work due to illness. Employees who report to work ill will be sent home in accordance with these health guidelines.
- It is sad to say this, but we are suspending handshakes, high fives, hugs, and other celebratory/greetings that involve physical contact. We know this is a big part of our organization so we suggest you air high five or come up with some fun non-contact celebrations. Anyone up for a unified dance? Who knows? Maybe you’ll come up with a new routine that creates a stronger bond with someone.
- Increase wash stations and bring hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes to practices and events.
- As of April 13, 2020, the new guidelines put into place by the CDC is that everyone should wear a cloth face cover when they go out into public, including offices. Here are the CDC’s instructions on how to make a mask in 45 seconds: https://youtu.be/QGSY3mEMhoE. NOTE: Cloth face coverings should not be placed on children under the age of 2.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water is not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol. We recommend you take hand sanitizer with you.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
- Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
- Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue; then throw the tissue in the trash. If you don’t have a tissue nearby, cough or sneeze into your arm.
- Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces, such as light switches, door handles, hand rails, telephones, and so on.
- Kaiser Permanente and global and national health experts recommend you get an annual flu vaccine.
- We recommend you try your best to stay 6 feet away from people you do not live with.
- The CDC recommends you avoid nonessential travel to China, South Korea, Iran, and Italy. You should practice enhanced precautions when travelling to Japan. You can learn more about the CDC’s travel health notices at https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices.
Resources
- Prevention & Treatment
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/prevention-treatment.html
- World Health Organization (WHO): https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public
- If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your local field office (www.sosc.org/programs).
- We recommend you only gather information from reputable organizations, such as the WHO, CDC, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
- We will provide updates as new information arises.