During the local COVID-19 outbreak, everyone in Taiwan has been asked to stay at home or work from home for the majority of the time.
This was tolerable at first, but as the soft lockdown goes on, people have started to go a little stir crazy, and some might even be starting to panic after watching news reports about the outbreak.
The government raised the COVID-19 alert to level 3 in May, and has repeatedly extended it. Amid such special circumstances, there are things we can do to take care of our mental and physical health while helping to keep COVID-19 at bay.
Many housewives and working women are under increased pressure to prepare three meals per day, in addition to looking after their children.
To help ease this stress,
they could adopt a “shop less, buy more” strategy, and purchase prepared meals through group orders or online to reduce the frequency of cooking at home or going grocery shopping.
With the number of COVID-19 cases declining, people can visit local restaurants for takeout, so the establishments can at least make some money to pay their employees.
For clothing, not being able to go shopping for new things to wear could be inconvenient for some people, as they are being denied a channel through which they can let off steam. I have seized this period as an opportunity to “declutter” my closet, and have found some beautiful dresses that had been tucked away, but can be worn again.
Casual dress is acceptable when working from home, but that does not mean we can neglect personal hygiene. We need to keep our appearances respectable, after all. When taking part in a videoconference, dress formally just for the sake of keeping a sense of ritual and having the feeling of working from the office.
Then there is public transportation. Prepare shopping lists and routes before leaving the house to reduce the time spent outdoors and the number of places visited.
The only problem for me is that I have not visited my parents in nearly three months. Luckily, it is rather convenient for us to contact each other over the phone or through video calls. Even my mother, who did not know how to make video calls before the level 3 alert, now waits for my calls at about 7pm every day.
Finally, there is leisure. With successful disease prevention efforts in the past year until May’s outbreak, the domestic tourism industry had been booming since overseas travel was unavailable.
As this wave of COVID-19 was erupting in Taiwan, the public stayed at home, but more people are going out after shutting themselves indoors for a while.
However, at a time when most Taiwanese are not vaccinated, crowded gatherings at scenic areas could be dangerous once the government lowers the COVID-19 alert to level 2. Under such circumstances, there should be “crowd control” at tourist spots.
I prefer to go to places that have with fewer people, or go for a ride by myself. There is a park near my home in Tainan, and when I see from my apartment that there are not too many people there, I go for a round of power walking to get in some moderately intense aerobic exercise.
It is also an opportunity
to get some sun to boost my vitamin D intake, which is also a good way to prevent COVID-19, as it helps the immune system.
Cho Chiung-yu is an associate professor at National Cheng Kung University’s Department of Physical Therapy.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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