Overview
Everyone knows about the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, which is irrevocably changing everything. Nobody was expecting this virus to take over the whole world in such quick succession.
The event planners have the same risk of getting germs as the guests, so they should consider it. The current scenario demands that everyone take care of their health, which could result in illness if you’re not in safe surroundings.
You should keep your surroundings clean and aware of best practices on how to avoid spreading germs. The event planners should take good care to stop the spread of germs in gatherings by considering every point that can cause risk.
Why Is This Important to Prevent the Spread of Germs?
There is no vaccine to cure COVID-19, and the only way to avoid the spread of this disease is by taking safety measures. Nobody would want to get the infection in any case.
If any guests get an infection during the event, then the memory of the event will vanish no matter how successful your event was at the time.
You should avoid everything that can become a cause for the spread of germs at your gatherings and should take simple, practical steps to avoid germs and ensure the safety of your guests.
Public safety should be your event’s priority, and it will be the success of your event. It may happen that the symptoms are not visible in any of your guests, but they might have the infection and can become a cause of spreading the germs.
You should take essential steps and act according to the situation. The question is, how can these germs spread? It is important to find the answer to this question as it will help you to find ways to tackle the issues.
How Can Germs Spread?
In simplest terms, people become the cause of spreading the germs as germs typically travel from person to person. The spread can be either through direct physical contact or secondary contact, such as while sharing food with an infected person.
There are many other sources of spreading the germs, too, such as through the air. You can get to know more about the spread of germs from the information given below.
5 Different Ways That Germs May Spread
Germs are spread in the following five ways:
5.1 Hands
There are many answers to the question of how are germs spread by hand? Hands get dirty and are a source of exploring the world through touch.
Hands cover and get touched with the less-pleasant bodily functions such as sneezing and coughing. The germs can spread easily from person to person through hands if you don’t wash your hands properly to eliminate germs.
You can think about how the hands are becoming the cause of spreading the germs. If you have been to any networking event, you must have shaken hands with so many people there.
This can become a cause of spreading the germs as it might happen that somebody had germs there. You get all the germs of people with your handshake as you’ve come into physical contact with them, and you don’t know the last time they washed their hands.
Germs can be of any type and can cause many diseases such as rotavirus, norovirus, strep throat, MRSA, candida, and, most importantly, Corona Virus nowadays.
If you mistakenly touch your face, nose, or mouth, the germs can transfer to your body, and you would have to suffer onwards. So, hands are the most common way to get infected in gatherings.
5.2 Pets and Animals
Another way of spreading germs can be animals, including family pets, as they sometimes carry germs that can harm humans. Even if you take care of your animals very well, they can still carry germs such as bacteria, parasites, fungi, and viruses.
You might not notice it as there might not be any symptoms at the start. The germs would transfer to the person who pets the animal having germs.
5.3 Food
If your hands are dirty and you touch the food with them, then it can contaminate the food too. If the food preparer has an infection and doesn’t wash their hands before preparing the food, then it the most likely transferred to the person who eats the food.
When an infected person comes into contact with food shared by others, there can be this type of person-to-food-to-person transmission.
If a person who has an infection sneezes without covering their nose and mouth at a buffet line or double-dips into a shared dish, then there is a chance of spreading the germs.
Another type of transmission can be a food-to-person-to-food chain in which the food preparer can get the germs if he touches a raw piece of meat with germs.
It would all make a chain such as a person will transfer the germs into the meal and would other foods too that will transfer the germs, and this chain will continue, which is dangerous. Hence, food is also a way to spread germs.
5.4 Through Air
The air carries the germs, and this happens when the person coughs or sneezes without properly covering their mouth and nose.
It may transfer as the air would carry the droplet and can travel as far as six feet and infect others with it in many ways, such as by landing on nearby surfaces or in another person’s mouth, eyes, or nose.
It happens when droplets linger on surfaces for hours and remain infectious, so one should cover the mouth while sneezing and coughing. In the current situation of COVID-19, there is no idea about the longevity of a droplet’s infectiousness.
Everyone recommends wearing a mask over one’s nose and mouth. Disinfected surfaces can come into contact with infected individuals in many ways.
So, taking care of your health and others is the most important step, which can be done by keeping our air safe from germs.
5.5 Children
The kids are cute and don’t know about their hygiene skills, so they can have germs. They can become a cause of virus spread to parents if they have an infection such as parents coming into contact during diaper changing.
If the parent doesn’t notice and leaves it as it eases, then it could cause a virus to spread.
Parents can stop it by washing their hands immediately after doing any such thing. The children can cause other children to have a virus while playing as there is close contact or physical contact while playing.
If the child has a runny nose and wipes it on the back of his hand and then plays with his classmates, he can risk other children and getting infected by the spread of germs.
10 Best Ways Preventing the Spread of Germs
You can prevent the spread of germs in gatherings by following some guidelines and principles. It is necessary to make these guidelines a part of your life to prevent infections by the spread of germs in gatherings or events.
Below are discussed ways that may keep you away from germs if you take this seriously:
1. Skip Handshakes
If you want to avoid the spread of germs, then you shouldn’t shake hands. You can consider tapping elbows or, waving to the other party or group from a distance or forearms tapping feet as these can be the safest ways.
These all prevent the spread of germs as there wouldn’t be hand-to-hand contact with others. According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, if you want to prevent the spread of germs, then you should keep a minimum of six feet distance from others.
2. Have A Flexible Cancellation Policy
The event can be exciting and important but would not be more important than your health or the health of others. You should allow attendees to notify you of their cancellation at any time.
If you want to stop the spread, you should encourage the person to stay home if he is feeling sick. There will be no harm or spread of germs if the infected or ill person does not contact others.
A flexible cancellation policy can also play an essential role in preventing the spread of germs in gatherings.
3. Provide Sanitary Supplies
Another best way of stopping the spread of germs is to give participants every opportunity to stay safe and provide sanitary supplies at your event.
You can provide the participants with sanitary supplies to keep them safe such as soap, tissues, hand sanitizer, and clean running water so that they can properly wash their hands.
If you can, you should consider keeping your participants safe by providing non-medical fabric masks.
4. Educate Attendees on Basic Best Practices
If you have to arrange or attend a gathering, you can show a simple infographic on your pre-presentation slideshow or a paragraph on how to stop spreading germs.
There are many reliable, vetted scientific sources such as the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and WHO(World Health Organization), where you can download free infographics.
It that educates the attendees on basic best practices for personal hygiene and germ prevention. If some of them don’t know about it, he would be aware of it and be able to adopt it.
While those who have information and know it will be able to follow it more professionally.
5. Be Cautious When Serving Food
The meal serving plays an important role in stopping the spread of germs. There are many ways to prevent the spread of germs over the dining table, limiting the opportunities for others to share food items.
If you want to stop the spread of germs, you can use a plated meal instead of a buffet, eliminating the possibility of an infected person contaminating one or more shared dishes.
If you want to be more conscious, then you can choose pre-filled glasses of water for an individual instead of a shared pitcher for the table.
You can include helpful tips and guidelines in your event’s messaging, such as that one should not share his/her food with others to stop the spread of germs.
We are always taught to share food as sharing is caring, but it is not always, especially during this pandemic. The caterer should understand to prevent the spread of germs during their work by following all food and beverage health and safety rules.
6. Avoid Overcrowding
Another important thing in this pandemic to stop the germs from spreading is to keep a distance from others. Social distancing can play an important role in decreasing the spread of this disease.
If you book the right-sized venue for your crowd, then you can avoid overcrowding at your event. One needs to have at least six to ten square feet of space to be comfortable and to stop spreading the germs.
According to the CDC’s recommendation, one should keep a distance of at least six feet between yourself and others to stop the spread of this virus.
7. Allocate Someone To Routinely Wipe Frequented Surfaces
In a world pandemic like COVID-19, it is not enough to clean; one should disinfect the surfaces as there’s a difference between cleaning and disinfecting. Disinfecting the surfaces will stop the spread of germs.
You can tell your staff and team to routinely wipe down frequented surfaces with a disinfecting solution, per disinfecting guidelines for facilities, and the CDC’s cleaning. These steps will surely prevent the spread of germs at gatherings.
8. Consider Antibacterial Business Cards
The professional, who is germ conscious, can get antibacterial business cards from the market as they’re now on the market. These antibacterial cards can be a healthy, conversation-starting option for them.
The business cards go to many hands and can cause the spread of germs too. If you go for an antibacterial business card, it would stop the spread of germs and let everyone know that you’ve done something to avoid germs and care about their health.
9. Encourage Frequent Hand Washing
The most important step or way of avoiding the spread of germs or disease is to stop handshaking and do hand washing. You should encourage people to wash their hands frequently at your gatherings or events.
For all these, you should provide them with antibacterial hand soap, clean running water, and easy access to the restrooms from all spaces throughout the event.
You can also place reminder images of handwashing and can place hand sanitizer stations throughout your venue.
10. Keep Yourself And Your Guests In The Loop
When you want to stop spreading germs, then providing someone with the information about it becomes the power. The CDC says event planners should know about the news of the transmission level of the germs spread in their area.
They should also have information about best practices regarding gatherings. If you can, you may consider regularly updating individual health and sanitation tips to those on your guest list via email.
You can tell them about the steps you’re taking to prevent the spread of germs at the upcoming event.
More Germ Prevention Resources
All the tips and guidelines informed above are from highly reliable and unbiased sources. Event planners and guests should utilize the following resources to educate themselves further to avoid spreading germs during the Coronavirus pandemic:
This is the United Nations agency known as The World Health Organization, which is responsible for international public health. This organization provides public information for free.
The information it provides about the disease is for the entire world, not just for the United States.
In the current COVID-19 situation, the World Health Organization is providing reliable and science-based information about it to educate people and increase awareness throughout the world.
It is the leading national public health institute in the USA. This federal agency provides free, public information about health-related topics, current disease spread, and disease prevention.
Conclusion
During this world pandemic COVID-19, people around the world are suffering as they don’t have any medicine yet to get out of it. People are starting to take the spread of this virus seriously as it’s been spreading fast.
As stated above, there is no vaccine for this disease yet, but we can get rid of it by taking the preventive measures discussed in this article. These include avoiding shaking hands and minimizing social gatherings, etc.
You can become a cause of spreading the germs and get the germs too if you don’t follow the methods as mentioned earlier of stopping the spread of germs.
Keep yourself and your loved ones safe from this health crisis and get through this period by following these guidelines religiously. Let’s hope for the best!
REFERENCES: - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - World Health Organization