Most work environments that need to be on-site have taken precautions to make sure that they make as safe an environment as possible. Most of the times, they will take your temperature, have an interpreter fill out a COVID-19 form in advance, supply hand sanitizer, indicators for safe distance, and sometimes even gloves that you can use. Even so, it is up to you to make sure that you stay safe. Here are some small tips to remind everyone.

First, keep in mind that anyone and everyone could be a potential carrier of the virus. This is not to say that you should be completely paranoid, but if you keep that mind, then that will help you to exercise caution and not let your guard down. This means that you will remember to avoid shaking hands, keep a safe distance from everyone around you, and carrying around hand sanitizer gel. However, this does not mean that you should treat people poorly just because you are scared of infection. They are most certainly just as worried as you. Remember, we are all in this together, so treat each other with compassion, respect, and kindness.

Next, though it is common courtesy to shake hands of the people you are working with, it is not advisable to shake hands during the pandemic since the virus could possibly be transferred to your hand and infect you if you accidentally touch your eyes, mouth, or nose. Instead of shaking hands, you can just wave your hand and greet them warmly.

When you can, make sure you wash your hands. Though hand sanitizer can do the trick of quickly cleaning your hands, it will not completely keep you safe from the virus. Put simply, the water will neutralize and wash away the virus while the hand sanitizer will only neutralize it. While hand sanitizer is a good way to quickly clean your hands, it is not the best way to stay completely safe.

Also be sure to avoid touching surfaces in general. The virus can survive on surfaces, and then be transmitted to you if you touch your face. So try to be extra careful about what you touch in the area that you are working. Alternatively, you could also bring gloves so that you avoid having to touch anything with your hands altogether. Or you could carry around a bottle of hand sanitizer so that you can clean your hands whenever you touch something.

Speaking of bottles, you should avoid bringing bottles of water or food to assignments. Whenever you put them down, they have a chance to pick up the virus, so it is better to just eat your food and drink how much ever water or liquid you want in your car and leave it there so that you don’t accidentally get infected.

Finally the best way to avoid being infected is to boost your own immune system, meaning to take care of both your health. For example, consider going on walks every day to stay active. The walks can be as short as half an hour. The important part is just to take time to move around and get your heart rate up. Next, make sure you have a balanced diet. Eating out and ordering delivery has become much more prevalent during the pandemic, but cooking for yourself or ordering healthier options is a great way to give your body the proper nutrition it needs. Having a healthy balance is important to make sure that you keep yourself in a good condition and avoid any problems that might arise from the new pandemic lifestyle.

People have come up with all sorts of ways to show appreciation and help each other during these hard times. In cities across the world, when 8 PM rolls around people head to their balconies and yards to cheer, clap, bang pots, and make as much noise as they can to show their support for health care workers. There are countless examples of individuals taking action to make the best of the situation, like this neighborhood in Oakland that threw a “social distance block party” and these people performing music and leading exercises for their apartment buildings.

Social media is a great tool for helping people and spreading positivity. People are using social media to connect people who need help with people who can provide that help. For example, the app Nextdoor (a social media app for your neighborhood) has developed a “help map” feature, where participants can sign up to be “helpers” in their neighborhood. Anyone in the area who needs extra assistance knows that they can contact these people to run errands, do check-ins, etc. Cultural institutions, like museums, are using social media to connect with their fans in new and fun ways. For example, the Getty Museum has posted a challenge online for people to recreate works of art with everyday objects. The results are creative and hilarious, and bring some lightness to the difficult situation of being stuck at home.

Companies and corporations are also taking huge steps to help people during this pandemic. General Motors has partnered with Ventec, a ventilator supply company, to drastically increase the number of ventilators that are being manufactured. This has the added benefit of keeping many GM workers employed that might otherwise have lost their jobs. Some distilleries, such as the Shine Distillery in Portland, have started making hand sanitizer, a critical resource that is currently quite difficult to obtain. These are just a few examples; please check out this Forbes list for more.

At Monterey Language Services, we love seeing all the ways that individuals, organizations and companies are coming together to provide help in this difficult situation. We are doing our best to provide help how we can: we are continuing to provide translation and interpretation services for any client that needs it. We also want to spread the message that we are here for each other, and we can get through this together!