The first time I go out shopping since the lock-down started four days ago. We needed things like eggs, bananas, bread and milk. I could delay it a few days, but I simply wanted to see how war-time shopping works and how easy it is for me to respect some self-imposed hygiene and protection rules.
MY 15 RULES FOR SAFE PANDEMIC SHOPPING
- Wear two masks: a better mask like a dust one on the inside, covered by a self-made fabric mask or just a wrapped cloth on the outside.
- Wear glasses and cover your hair.
- Keep the inner mask for further use, wash the outer mask together with all the clothes that have been outside.
- Use the entry of your house area as a quarantine zone, take off all your clothes there and put them straight into the the washing machine.
- Keep the outside shoes outside the house if you can, or in the quarantine zone.
- Keep the non-perishable products away from your house, like in the boot of your car or in the quarantine zone, and don’t touch them for 72 hours.
- Wipe the products to be used sooner with a disinfecting cloth.
- Take no bags to the shop, leave them in the car and fill them in the boot from the shopping trolley. If you don’t have a car, use a large backpack the same way.
- Use rubber gloves or plastic bags, one hand on the trolley or basket, one hand on the groceries. Throw them away before you enter the car or house.
- Use only one credit card, contact-less if you can, and disinfect it at home.
- Don’t take your watch, jewellery or other unnecessary accessories outside.
- Keep your phone always in the pocket and have a code with your family, like “ring me three times and I’ll ring you back when I can do so safely”.
- Don’t touch or take out of your pocket the car keys if your car has key-less entry, or treat your keys like the credit card and disinfect them when you return, if you must touch them.
- Treat the inside of your car as “less contaminated”, but the outside and the boot where the bags are as “more likely contaminated” and avoid using the car for the next 72 hours.
- Have a shower once you are back home, before you get into new clothes.
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Overall, I drove 3.5 kilometres each way to the nearest supermarket and I saw 15 moving cars and 18 people with 7 dogs. No children at all. The shop was well stocked and they had clear safety measures in place. I was impressed by the whole set-up, not so much by some prices. People’s attitude towards the pandemic is changing. I’d say 50% were wearing masks and 25% had gloves. Everyone was polite, but quiet.
Today we had the first casualty in New Zealand but for the second day in a row the number of new cases has decreased, despite the more increased tested. Total number of cases in our country so far is 415. A month ago we had zero, a week ago we had 52.
I still can’t understand why instead of early measures at the beginning, which would have harmed the economy but saved many lives, we had to wait, hesitate, and then impose late measures which harm human rights (and the economy).
