Practicalities

[wildeabandon]

One thing that is slightly complicated is that robert_jones is in court next week, so obandsoller & I are going to have to isolate from him as well as the outside world. Fortunately the house is quite big, so it should be fairly managable, but it's going to require a certain amount of logistics. I think the plan is broadly:

• Ramesh & I will mostly stay in our rooms or the 1st floor sitting room with the doors closed, except when moving between each other's rooms and the 2nd floor bathroom.


• We won't use the 1st floor bathroom or the ground floor loo, and Robert won't use the 2nd floor bathroom


• We'll all check in on Whatsapp before using the kitchen or either sitting room


• Ramesh & I will eat in our rooms


• I'll cook for Robert and Ramesh, but Robert won't cook for us - which will actually work out quite nicely, because then Robert will owe me some cooking turns when I'm recovering


• Extra handwashing before and after doing anything in the kitchen or being in shared areas of the house


• Extra wiping down of kitchen surfaces and things like the kettle handle before and after using


• We'll have seperate sets of kitchen towels


• We'll keep windows open throughout the house as much as possible (which, frankly, we'd be doing anyway if the weather continues like this

Is there anything else obvious that we haven't thought of?

Comments

[jack]

Agh, that's tedious. Sorry you're all having to. That sounds like a reasonable plan to me.

[jack]

If you want to be additionally careful, nothing stands out, but the things I'd look at would be, extra extra ventilation, making sure everything in common areas is separated into "our stuff and your stuff" where possible, both furniture and food, leaving extra time between using the common areas, minimizing any risks that you're not sure of even if it's not eliminated. And maybe masks in common areas. I think separate bathrooms probably helps a lot. But I don't know how careful you SHOULD be being.

[ewt]

Sounds reasonable to me.

If you drink a *lot* of tea or other just-add-hot-water drinks, it might be worth getting a second kettle and putting it in the first floor sitting room. (Or just moving the existing kettle in there, and having whoever wants hot water in the kitchen use a pan on the hob.)

[hilarita]

+1 on the "get another kettle" plan if possible.

[wildeabandon]

Oh, there is in fact already a spare kettle in Ramesh's room that he uses for hot water bottles, so that's fine. I might get a mini-fridge so we can keep some milk upstairs.

[barakta]

Would Robert be willing to wear a mask while walking round public bits of house? You and Ramesh may find it worth wearing a mask in rooms Robert has been in within the last X just as a precaution?

My understanding is that fomite (touch) transmission is believed to be relaively low outside a clinical environment of COVID-hot patients. The main concern is droplet/airbourne transmission and how long they take to settle and then become less problematic.

The Lancet: https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/laninf/PIIS1473-3099(20)30561-2.pdf

Now fomites are a higher risk in shared spaces between humans so a mask would help minimise that risk and keep it out the air.

What I found interesting was the studies of "detectable virus on surfaces" was done with REALLY high concentrations of virus which aren't realistic unless J Random Human was 1) infected and 2) coughed/sneezed about 8 times on a single set of space and 3) someone else touched it within the hour...

Sorry you have this stress tho, this is why our government sucks cos they haven't thought about isolating people within the same houses.

[cosmolinguist]

Agreed, I've just been reading about this too (there's a pop-sci level of the Lancet paper here). So the only advantage to something like an extra kettle really would be that it might mean you'd spend less time breathing the air in the shared space. But washing your hands at the beginning and end of your time in the kitchen (never a terrible idea anyway) seems like enough to reduce the small risk of transmission from surfaces.

[ludy]

Urgle! Sorry that there is so much to navigate. Good Luck!

Are you able to designate specfic cups, glasses, forks and spoons (things that actually touch your mouth and not just your hands) for specfic people? And how will you manage washing those things up?

And how will you manage potentially body-fluid contaminated rubbish like used tissues and wipes?

[wildeabandon]

Hmm. I think for utensils, if we just agree that Robert won't empty the dishwasher, then anything he uses will have been cleaned before Ramesh or I come into contact with it. Tissues &c tend to end up in bedroom bins and we don't handle one another's anyway, so that should be okay.

[minihedgehog]

I'm late to the party, but assume this will probably continue to happen.

I'm seeing people involved in research recommending air filters. Portable ones are apparently common in the USA, I don't know if they're as accessible here but worth a look. They go so far as recommending portable ones in school classrooms if people can't get into the HVAC to add appropriate filters, in addition to recommending portable ones for homes.

Good luck, and also good work!