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WHEELING -- For a nation of people devoted to hugging, hand-shaking and other "up close and personal" interactions, "social distancing" could be a foreign concept, but health experts contend it's necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages Americans to practice social distancing measures during the outbreak.
The CDC defines social distancing as it applies to COVID-19 as "remaining out of congregrate settings, avoiding mass gatherings and maintaining distance (approximately 6 feet) from others when possible."
Tony Condia, vice president of marketing at WVU Medicine, said, "Social distancing is a life-saving imperative, one that can buy us critical time and help prevent our collective health care system from getting overwhelmed by a possible surge in COVID-19 cases."
Social distancing is the reason why so many public events have been canceled in West Virginia and Ohio, across the nation and around the globe. Failure to contain the virus now could lead the United States to a similar situation now seen in Italy, where the nation's health care system has been overwhelmed by the virus.
Experts from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore stated: "Social distancing is a public health practice that aims to prevent sick people from coming in close contact with healthy people in order to reduce opportunities for disease transmission. It can include large-scale measures like canceling group events or closing public spaces, as well as individual decisions such as avoiding crowds.
"With COVID-19, the goal of social distancing right now is to slow down the outbreak in order to reduce the chance of infection among high-risk populations and to reduce the burden on health care systems and workers. Experts describe this as 'flattening the curve,' which generally refers to the potential success of social distancing measures to prevent surges in illness that could overwhelm health care systems."
According to experts, it's particularly important to maintain that same 6-foot distance from anyone who is demonstrating signs of illness, including coughing, sneezing or fever.
Along with maintaining physical distance, proper hand washing is important for protection because the virus can be spread even without symptoms.
Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist from the Johns Hopkins Center, recommends washing hands any time you enter from indoors to outdoors, before you eat, and before you spend time with people who are more vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19, including older adults and those with serious chronic medical conditions. There are a variety of tips the public is being given to remain focused on washing their hands for a full 20 seconds.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said she had been told to sing "Happy birthday" twice, and students now home from West Virginia University were told to sing the chorus of John Denver's "Country Roads" while washing their hands.
Locally and nationally, a number of actions taken in recent days are designed to encourage social distancing. These actions include suspending in-person classes, canceling events and large gatherings, closing restaurants and bars to in-person service and suspending worship services and encouraging telecommuting.