Dr Norman Swan, Physician and Journalist
Here are 5 things that you should not do the next time you go to the supermarket.
1. Don’t pass the hand sanitiser
Well, the first thing is don’t pass the hand sanitizer without using it. So use the hand sanitiser all the time.
2. Keep your distance
When you are in the supermarket itself, do not get closer than one and a half metres to somebody else. And if somebody’s picking up the onions and you want the onions, hold back until you get there.
3. Don’t panic buy
The other thing that you shouldn’t do when you go to the supermarket is try and panic buy. If there’s COVID-19 is hitting your areas, look, there’s always gonna be toilet paper. Don’t worry about it. Just pick it up, the goods that you need, when you need them.
4. Don’t get in people’s faces
The fourth thing that you should do when you’re going to the supermarket, is that you’re likely to see a friend there. Don’t go straight up into their face. Don’t give them a hug or a kiss, stand back. And even the elbow thing, don’t you think the elbow thing’s a bit stupid? Just stand back and say, “Hi”. Keep your distance from them. And you know, and don’t get in people’s faces. It happens to me all the time. I’m in the supermarket and somebody comes up to that and I just run away. So don’t do that either.
5. Don’t worry about washing fruit and veg
And the other thing that you don’t need to do when you go to a supermarket, at least when you go home, you don’t need to wash the fruit and veg. It’s not gonna make any difference. It’s highly unlikely there’s any surviving virus on your fruit and veg, at least by the time you get home. So relax about that. There are more important things to worry about.
And finally, an important thing to do if you’re worried and you’re at risk of COVID-19 disease, particularly serious disease, wear a mask when you’re in the supermarket. It’s not embarrassing and it actually tells other people to keep their distance.
