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With COVID-19 affecting 185 countries around the world and an increasing number of cases, any cough or sneeze around us, is enough to put us on high alert! Now more than ever, we all need to practice personal hygiene etiquette.
Hygiene etiquette helps prevent the spread of diseases, and it is important that we adhere to the guidelines given to us by the relevant authorities.
But what if some choose to ignore these guidelines while interacting with you? There are polite yet safe ways to manage relationships with other people, and also protect yourself.
Sneezing or coughing should be done into a tissue and in the absence of that, the sleeve or crook of the elbow. If you feel a coughing fit coming on, it is best to leave the room. If you do end up sneezing or coughing close to someone else, apologise immediately and move away from them, maintaining the appropriate social distance of 2 metres.
If someone around you is not adhering to these rules of engagement, simply step away from them. If you are not able to do so immediately, you can pass on the message by offering them tissues – take a tissue yourself and then offer them some (or the entire pack if it is a small one). Used tissues should always be deposited in a covered BIN, and hands either washed or sanitised afterwards.
Although shunning handshakes is also a reasonable course of action at a time like this, to avoid unwittingly embarrassing someone, you may give them a quick reminder about the safety warnings on Coronavirus first, and not just decline the handshake abruptly.
When the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, extended her hand to her interior minister, Horst Seehofer, at a meeting earlier this month, he refused her handshake and waved her away. Pre-coronavirus, his gesture would have been the epitome of bad manners. But, with recent changes to handshake etiquette globally, a smiling Merkel immediately held up her hands and said: “That was the right thing to do.”
Finally, heard about the foot-shake or surely elbow bump? These increasingly seem to be replacing handshakes, and have the added advantage of giving us the opportunity to add a little humour to what could otherwise be tense situations.
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