One meter away from each other, mainland physicians suggest

A trusted online community of mainland healthcare professionals, Ding Xiang Doctor (DXY), has suggested that mainland residents stay at least one meter away from each other. This is one among many other suggestions made to Chinese residents as a means to tackle the epidemic of the novel coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV.
On Sunday, the community made a post on its official WeChat account containing 20 suggestions for mainland residents.
The first suggestion asks mainland residents to stay in their current location and postpone travel to any of outbound planned destinations. The website proposes that Chinese residents carry alcohol disinfectants and keep their hands clean.
Approximately half of the 20 suggestions educate mainlanders on how to avoid contact with other people.
On Sunday afternoon, the Chinese national health authority recommended that mainland residents try their best to not sit next to anyone while traveling on public transportation and leave one seat between one another.
“When talking to others, please keep a distance of at least one meter. Two meters will be safe,” DXY advised, following the country’s national health authority’s recommendation.
Another suggestion to mainland travelers recommends that, when one person is continually coughing or sneezing inside a train car, others keep a distance from that person and give them a mask. Upon giving the mask, commuters should create a temporary environment of isolation around this person.
Ding Xiang Doctor is one of mainland China’s most followed healthcare accounts on Weibo, with five million followers. On WeChat, it has over 10 million followers, ranking first among healthcare accounts.
The website has reportedly gathered the input more than 70% of mainland China’s medical professionals. It has over 2.3 million followers on Zhihu, the mainland version of Quora, making it the most followed account on Zhihu. In 2019, it recorded over 3.2 billion readings.
This influential healthcare account is telling mainland residents to carry “at least three masks” every day in case of any emergency or long-distance travel. At the same time, the online doctor community hopes that mainland residents will have plenty of trash bags readily available so that contaminated items may be safely contained.
Ding Xiang Doctor urged mainland residents “Do not eat” while traveling and to resolve food demands before and after travelling. If mainland residents want to eat during their travel, they should finish eating “as fast as they can” and should always keep a distance from coughing people.
“Timely, effective, and simple to understand,” one WeChat user commented below the post.
“I hope middle-aged or seniors can enhance their awareness and wear masks when going out,” another user commented.
In addition to the above, Ding Xiang Doctor also reminded mainland residents to leave their shoes outside their houses, and to leave their clothes hanging outside.

Categories China