Running Essential Errands Safely: Our Tips
Although we may be in another lockdown, regular life still needs to go on, and the day’s essential jobs still need to be completed. However, completing our essential errands in lockdown is certainly different from what we are all used to. Even amidst all of these recent and ongoing restrictions, we must still continue to undertake essential shopping and key errands. These important tasks include grocery shopping, going to the pharmacy, attending school (to drop off and pick up your child), and some essential workers will still need to be attending the office in person.
Life has been pretty strange these past few months, and nowadays we don’t leave the house without a mask and a bottle of hand sanitiser. But we think it’s fair to say that, on the whole, we’ve gotten used to these little changes pretty quickly.
These sorts of intuitive prevention measures are a great way to limit the risks that you incur by leaving the house - you can significantly reduce the risk of getting sick from COVID-19 when you complete your necessary jobs by simply being careful.
With this in mind, we wanted to share with you our top tips for running your essential errands during the lockdown. Thanks to a bit of adaptive thinking, you can have the best of both worlds - being able to complete your key daily jobs, while keeping your family safe and protected against the virus.
Our five top tips for essential errands and lockdown
1. Think about what time you head to the shops
If you can avoid it, don’t go shopping at the busiest times of the day. By shopping early in the morning, you can dodge the mad supermarket rush that occurs at midday or just after work. Shopping when the supermarket is quieter will significantly reduce the risk that you come into contact with a carrier of the virus, while also making it far easier to practice social distancing for everyone inside the supermarket.
This way, you are not only protecting yourself and your family, but you are also helping to protect the rest of the people in your local community.
2. Don’t worry about wearing gloves
A common myth is that wearing gloves when shopping is as good at protecting you from the virus as using hand sanitiser is. Our best advice would be that you don’t have to wear gloves, as using sanitiser as you enter and leave the supermarket is the most effective way to protect yourself against picking up COVID-19 AND you helping to reduce single-use plastic waste which is contributing to staggering figures of pollution as a result.
3. Make the most out of online shopping
Although you won’t be able to resort to online shopping for all of your essentials, buying your groceries from an online supermarket is a great way to reduce the risk that you will contract COVID. This is because you are limiting your contact with other people, while also limiting the likelihood that the virus will be transmitted to your home via the purchased items that are brought into it.
4. Unpack your shopping in a safe way
Expanding on the point above, it is so important that you be careful when you unpack your shopping, as there is a chance that it may have the potential to transmit COVID-19 on its surface.
The CDC website recommends a number of safe practices for unpacking your shopping. These include refrigerating or freezing any perishable items (such as meat, fish or eggs) within two hours of buying them. Wash your hands thoroughly after you have unpacked your food, and disinfect your kitchen counters thoroughly after you have unpacked your shopping.
5. Adjust the ear loops on your mask in advance
In a large number of countries, including the UK, it is a legal requirement to wear a mask while shopping. So, don’t wait until you’re in the shops to make sure that it fits properly!
As you perform your errands, it is important that your mask fits you well, so that you don't have to keep adjusting it to stay in place and cover your nose and mouth properly. With Cambridge Mask Co., our masks feature adjustable toggles which enable you to alter the size of the ear loops so that your mask fits your face perfectly. There are some steps that you need to follow: (1) Make sure to loosen up both of the toggle buckles (means that you pull it away from the mask), (2) stretch it by pulling the ear loops one at a time or both at the same time (please do this while folding the mask in the even length), (3) Try your mask and see if it fits better, if not you can go back to step (1).
As we complete these parts of our daily routine, it is imperative that we are careful, thoughtful, and wear the best mask possible to ensure the lowest possible level of transmission and infection. Start protecting our surrounding by using the high-quality mask that filters more than 99% of what you breathe including virus, bacteria and particulate matters. To purchase our mask, click either one of these official stores: UK & Worldwide Store or US Store.
