That’s maintaining several feet of distance from other people to try and avoid the spread of the highly infectious virus.
Jackson County Public Health is encouraging social distancing amidst the coronavirus outbreak.
“Make sure that you stay 3 to 6 feet apart from others at social gatherings, avoid shaking hands,” said Dr. Jim Shames with Jackson County Public Health.
The idea of social distancing is to slow the spread of the highly infectious virus.
Not only will that keep people safe, especially the elderly and people with serious chronic medical conditions, but it will also prevent our health care systems from getting with overrun with patients.
“If you’re wondering why we’re taking this so seriously and why some of the measures being taken are being taken, it’s because of how serious we think this disease is and how likely it is to continue to spread,” added Dr. Shames.
Some shoppers at Medford’s Food 4 Less tell us they’re not concerned about staying away from others.
“Maybe a little overrated, but we don’t know, take these precautions when it’s needed,” said shopper Stephen Taylor.
“It’s really overrated, I think people need to calm down about the whole situation,” said Laura Diaz, another shopper at Food 4 Less.
Others say they’re trying to distance themselves when possible.
“It’s nice that people are starting to take it a little bit more seriously,” said a different shopper, Kevon Lindenberg.
But because of other circumstances, there’s only so much people can do.
“I work in a pediatric dental office, so social distancing is a little harder because we’re so up close with them,” said Teresa Dean.
“I’m a school bus driver so I don’t really have much of a social distancing I can do, my other thing is that I go to massage school and that’s not really possible there, either,” added Lindenberg.
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