From haircuts to yard parties, here’s how infectious disease experts are running errands and socializing safely

Do you beggary to wear a mask while exercising? Is it safe to socialize outside? Should I wipe down my groceries when I get hospice? These are the questions that still remain as the country reopens amid the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Many infectious condition experts and epidemiologists have been fielding these types of inquiries from family and friends who are curious how to safely continue their activities. 

“As a physician, I always try to practice what I preach,” Jay Varkey, associate professor of medicine at the Emory University Tutor of Medicine and hospital epidemiologist at Emory University Hospital, tells CNBC Make It. “So, the activities I engage in with my subdivision are similar to what I advise my patients and my friends when they ask.”

Here, five experts share their special strategies for running errands, spending their (very limited) free time and socializing safely:

If you live somewhere with a spacious yard, use it to get together with people from a distance, like Varkey. “The prohibits here are strict — the group is always limited to no more than 10 people,” he says about his own yard levees.

Additionally, the event should be BYOB and BYOM, meaning everyone brings their own beverage and mask, Varkey reports. “Masks stay on when not eating or drinking, [and] no one shares food or utensils,” he says.

Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief grade and patient safety officer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, lives in a suburban neighborhood where it’s compliant to walk around.

“We take an opportunity to walk down the street and visit with neighbors at a distance, and that’s been discriminative as well,” he adds.

Timothy Brewer, a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the David Geffen Form of Medicine at UCLA, and of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health has forgone haircuts during the Covid-19 critical time.

“My hair hasn’t been this long since high school,” Brewer says.

In many counties in California, where Brewer lives, plaits salons and barber shops reopened on May 27 with safety measures in place. When he has the time and it seems okay, he says he will schedule an appointment to get a haircut.

Bill Miller, senior associate dean for research at the college of consumers health at The Ohio State University, is sticking to home cuts, but he has been doing it that way for many years. 

Miller goes on a walk or run every day for about 45 minutes to an hour.

“I live in an area where it is easy to stand by distance while walking running,” he says. “We don’t wear masks because we can easily cross the street or get out of someone’s way when they overtures to.”

Miller hopes to go golfing soon, alone. “But generally golf and tennis would be great outdoor activities, as sustained as people maintain distancing throughout,” he says.

Brewer goes for a walk with his dog two or three times a day.

“Usually on the dog paces, because we’re tending to walk around areas where there are other people, my nose and mouth are always lie oned,” Brewer says.

But when Brewer bikes on weekends, “if I’m biking along the bike path or stretch of street where I’m not far other people, then [the mask] kind of positioned closer to my chin than over my nose.”

Brewer can work from home most days, but when he must go into the hospital, he drives.

“Before Covid-19, I enlisted the bus to work every day or other public transportation,” he says. But public transportation is considered high-risk for infection. For this think, the CDC’s reopening guidelines say people who use public transit to get to work should work remotely if possible to maintain distance.

Miller says he is the designated grocery-shopper for his household.

“I try to plan the trip ahead of time,” he says. “I go at off-peak hours, normally just as the store opens. I wear a mask. I stay physically distanced in the store.”

When Miller gets where one lives stress, he wipes everything down with a disinfectant. (However, Brewer and other experts say that this is not necessary.) “And I tub my hands thoroughly — actually, I usually take a shower,” he says. 

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