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COVID-19: What's Happening and What Can We Do To Stay Safe?

Frances Chan
(Updated )
COVID-19: What's Happening and What Can We Do To Stay Safe?

In recent weeks, COVID-19 (popularly known as “coronavirus”) has spread relentlessly around the globe. We’d like to take this opportunity to update everyone on the situation in our home countries and share some tips for staying safe (and sane!).

The Situation in Our Countries

Unfortunately, the pandemic has now reached parts of the world that many of our tutors call home. Let’s take a look at what’s happening in our top 3 countries and regions.

The Philippines

In the Philippines, home to over half of our tutoring community, many parts of the country are now under “community quarantine.” The largest one is taking place on Luzon island, home to over 57 million people as well as the country’s capital.

These community quarantines involve suspending public transportation and regulating the provision of food and “essential health services.” And as one of our tutors shared, “In Metro Manila, only one person per household is allowed to go out at a time. When going out to buy supplies, we must carry a quarantine pass.”

A local infectious disease specialist interviewed in Rappler explains that the quarantines are meant to slow down the spread of the virus so cases don’t spiral out of control and cause the medical system to collapse.

Here’s a graphic that explains this:

The Balkans

The Balkans, home to our second-largest pool of tutors, recently became the final part of Europe to report cases of COVID-19.

To contain the virus, many Balkan countries have temporarily suspended flights, closed borders and roads, shut down schools, and banned large gatherings.

In particular, Serbia has imposed a curfew and banned the elderly from leaving their homes, according to Reuters.

North America

North America (specifically the US, Canada, and Jamaica) is home to our next most sizable group of tutors. COVID-19 cases have now been reported in all 50 US states, most provinces of Canada, and also in Jamaica.

In response, the US and Canada have closed their border, and Jamaica has shut down its airports and seaports. Americans, Canadians, and Jamaicans have also been ordered to stay at home.

These social distancing measures should help slow the spread of the virus, as explained in this graphic:

So in sum, all our countries are now taking similar measures to contain the spread of the virus. We’re “all in the same boat,” as they say!

But while we're on this boat ... what can we do to protect our safety and sanity?

What Online Tutors Can Do

As online tutors, we’re already masters of social distancing — after all, we work from home, teaching students who live thousands of kilometres away from us!

And at Engoo, we're proud that we can provide opportunities for our tutoring community to stay at home while connecting with the world. We also made a Facebook profile frame about this:

Apply it to your Facebook page here.

But, there’s still a lot we can do to safeguard our health and happiness. Here are seven recommendations:

  1. Take Basic Precautions: We’ve probably all heard that handwashing is our biggest defense against the virus. But did you know that you should call your doctor before going to a clinic or hospital? Find out why in this list of basic precautions put together by the World Health Organization (WHO).
  2. Knowledge is Power: A lot of misinformation is spreading online about the COVID-19, so make sure to trust only the most reputable sources, such as the WHO’s COVID-19 website (e.g. check out this “mythbusters” page). Those who want to learn more about the virus and how we can protect ourselves from misinformation can check out this free online course by Imperial College London’s.
  3. Clean, Clean, Clean: As online tutors, we touch our computers a lot. It might be a good idea to clean “high-touch surfaces” like these more frequently. Here are cleaning recommendations put together by the University of Pennsylvania. Also check out this tutorial by a family physician on how to clean your groceries when you bring them into your home.
  4. Stay Physically Healthy: Staying physically healthy is important to keeping our immune system strong. Check out this article to learn what we should (and shouldn’t) be doing at this time and see this video for some at-home exercise ideas.
  5. Protect Your Financial Health: This means different things in different countries and circumstances. For example, a friend of mine successfully asked her landlord to temporarily lower her rent, as her income has taken a hit due to COVID-19. This article shares good tips like cutting non-essential spending and taking on a side job.
  6. Take Care of Your Mental Health: During difficult times, we need to be especially conscious of our mental health. In this podcast, a psychologist shares ways to do this, such as by taking deep breaths, reflecting on what we’re grateful for, and limiting news consumption to 15 minutes a day.
  7. Keep In Touch With Loved Ones: We also want to make sure we’re keeping in touch with friends and family. Now is not the time to get together with friends or visit elderly family members. But there are ways we can satisfy our human need to be social. Besides video-calling friends and family, public health experts also suggest these creative ways to stay connected.

👋 That’s it for now!

We hope that the tips above give us all some things to keep in mind as we navigate through the rough waters ahead. We also hope that nobody in our tutoring community will be directly affected by COVID-19. Stay strong!