There are a few different methods of slowing the spread of a virus, like COVID-19, that is transmitted from person to person.
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It's important to note that once a disease has reached pandemic level, like COVID-19 has, these measures won't necessarily stop individual people from catching it. But they will reduce the number of people with the disease at the same time.
Once the disease is in your community, each interaction with a person outside your home, or a public surface, is an opportunity to catch or pass on the virus.
You can reduce the number of opportunities you give the virus, and reduce the level of risk in the opportunities you do give it.
If everyone does this, the virus spreads much more slowly, and our health system is better able to keep up.
Hygiene
You've heard it before, we'll say it again - wash your dang hands. Use soap and water wherever possible - hand sanitiser is just not as good. Be sure to wash them for at least 20 seconds, getting in between your fingers and under your nails.
Having said that, if you can't get to soap and water and you've been touching public, communal surfaces (think door handles, shopping trolleys, bench-tops, gym equipment), a quick blast of hand sanitiser is much better than nothing.
It's also a good idea to sanitise public, communal equipment before and after you touch it. A quick wipe down reduces the chances of you picking up a bug, or passing one along to someone else.
Finally, the habit we all have - but don't notice. Touching our faces. Stop it right now. If you flush the toilet, tuck your hair behind your ears, then wash your hands - any bugs you picked up from the toilet are already on your face.
No one will admit to it, but research from the University of New South Wales indicates most of us touch our faces 23 times an hour. Just under half of those touches are to the mouth, eyes or nose. Notice when you do it and stop yourself - then wash your dang hands again.
Quarantine
Quarantine is the total isolation of a person or group - usually those who have an infectious disease, or have been somewhere where exposure to an infectious disease would be likely.
It can also mean to isolate uninfected but vulnerable groups from a sick population.
In either case, the isolation must be strict - a single point of contact between the quarantined group and the rest of the community makes the whole thing pretty useless.
"Self isolation" is a quarantine in the person's own home, where they are responsible for restricting their contact with others.
If someone has been instructed to self-isolate, NSW Police have the power to enforce that order. Offenders can face a fine of up to $11,000 and up to six months in jail.
Social distancing
"Social distancing" refers to a range of behaviours, like working from home, staying at home if you feel unwell, avoiding large gatherings and crowded communal spaces, like public transport.
At its most extreme, it could mean closing businesses, avoiding any gatherings, or limiting how often people are allowed to leave their homes.
Because COVID-19 is passed from person to person (instead of through contaminated food, water or parasites) human contact gives it opportunities to spread. The more people are together at the same time, the greater the potential spread.
Even if you don't feel sick, social distancing is still important. Some people with the virus won't have any symptoms, and won't know they need to self isolate. Social distancing reduces your risk of picking up the virus from one of these carriers.
If you are one of these carriers, it reduces your chances of unknowingly passing the virus on to others.
Herd immunity
Herd immunity isn't really a method for slowing the spread of a virus. We're including it here because it has been discussed overseas as a method for managing COVID-19.
Herd immunity happens when the vast majority of the population is immune to a disease. This can be achieved through vaccination - like polio - or by catching the illness and developing an immunity - like chicken pox.
Because so many people are immune, those who lack immunity (for example, babies too young to receive vaccines) are unlikely to come in contact with anyone carrying the disease, so they are safe too.
Herd immunity relies on a threshold of immunity being reached in the community. This threshold is different for different diseases, depending on how contagious they are.
For example, the measles are very contagious. More than 90 per cent of people need to be vaccinated for herd immunity to take effect. Polio is less contagious, and herd immunity will kick in if as little as 80 per cent of the population can be vaccinated.
COVID-19 appears to be very contagious. Herd immunity for COVID-19 would rely on a few factors.
A large number of people would need to contract and recover from COVID-19.
COVID-19 must be unable to reinfect those who have previously had the illness.
Those who are in vulnerable groups would need to be successfully quarantined until the rest of the community developed immunity.
The health care system must be able to keep pace with the number of critical cases during the infection period.
It is not yet known whether people can become reinfected with COVID-19 after they have recovered from the illness.