COVID-19: Staying well in the time of coronavirus
As with many illnesses, the healthier and stronger you are, the better your immune system works — the better you can fight off illness or recover if you get sick.
Strengthen your body against COVID-19 and other illnesses:
- Eat healthy foods, including protein, especially oily fish, and fruits and vegetables. Eat foods that strengthen your immune system, such as garlic, ginger, and turmeric.
- For people with lighter skin, being outside in the sun for 15 minutes every day helps the body make Vitamin D, which helps fight illness. The darker your skin or the older you are, the more time in the sun you will need.
- Drink about 2 liters every day of water, teas, broth or other healthy drinks.
- Get enough sleep—7 or 8 hours.
- Wash hands often, especially before you prepare food or eat, and after going to the toilet.
- Exercise daily: take a walk, dance, do stretches, yoga, or tai chi, and do breathing exercises. Exercise that strengthens your heart and lungs—like climbing stairs or running—helps your body better fight lung infections. Another way to exercise your lungs, and raise your spirits, is to sing loudly.
- Do not drink alcohol, it weakens your immune system.
- Do not smoke or be around smoke. Smoke harms your lungs, where coronavirus attacks.
Staying at home and not interacting with people outside your household is important to fighting the epidemic, but can leave you feeling isolated, sad, or worried.
An epidemic affects everyone in a community. While each household must care for itself and try to stay safe, we cannot survive coronavirus without caring for each other.
While COVID-19 is an emergency, it should not mean that people do not get care for their other health needs. Services can be provided differently, through telephone calls or text messages, and medicines and supplies can be delivered directly to the household to avoid travel to a central clinic.
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