Despite the hardship, a Regina physician in self-isolation due to clinical exposure is stressing the importance of social distancing to minimize the spread of COVID-19.
Dr. Ankit Kapur removed himself from all clinical settings and his family home to protect both his patients and colleagues, as well as his family following a recent exposure to a COVID-19-positive patient in the clinical setting. He recommends those that cannot completely remove themselves from a home environment should do as much as they can to isolate and distance themselves from the potential of transmission to family and friends through self-monitoring, minimizing contact, cough etiquette, and frequent handwashing.
“We need to send home the message that the better we are at these preventative measures, the more it will seem like this wasn’t needed. If it turns out there are only 10 cases, it was because we did this so aggressively right off the bat,” he says. “We want to get ahead and get so much social distancing early on that we slow this thing way down before we get to the stages Italy, China, and Iran are in.”