The COVID-19 pandemic has caused people massive distress with thousands of deaths being reported worldwide. By now, you already know about the coronavirus and its pertinent that you know how to take care of yourself.
Here is what the WHO recommends:
Wash your hands frequently
Regularly and thoroughly clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water.
Why? Washing your hands with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand rub kills viruses that may be on your hands.
Maintain social distancing
Maintain at least 1 metre (3 feet) distance between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing.
Why? When someone coughs or sneezes they spray small liquid droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain the virus. If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, including the COVID-19 virus if the person coughing has the disease.
However, COVID-19 isn’t the first pandemic to have affected our planet. Since 1918, we’ve had eight such pandemics.
- The Spanish Flu (1918-1919) took over 400 lakh lives and is believed to be the deadliest pandemic in history.
- Then there was the Asian Flu (1957-1958) that took around 11 lakh lives.
- The Hong Kong Flu (1968-1970) took around 10 lakh lives.
- SARS (2002-03) took around 770 lives.
- Swine Flu (2009-10) took around 20 lakh lives.
- Ebola (2014-16) took around 1 lakh lives.
- MERS (2015-Present) took over 1 Lakh lives.
