Lockdown 3: balancing the risks of everyday activities

Writer: Hedda Mittner.

After so many weeks in a hard lockdown, many of us are still struggling to cope with our new “freedom”, maybe even more so than in most other countries, where the lockdown regulations were only relaxed after the peak in infection rates had passed. Here, on the other hand, many of us are now allowed to go to work, our children are going back to school, we may go to church and use public transport, even though the expected peak is still several weeks off.

The trick now is to find a balance between safety and liberty as we resume our normal activities and routines. So just how big are the risks we face every day – and what can we do to stay as safe as possible while minimising the risks of infection and transmission?

The question of virus load Epidemiologists and other health experts around the world are still learning about COVID-19 and although many aspects of the disease remain baffling, there are some facts that have emerged. For example, we have been hearing a lot about ‘viral load’ lately. This refers to the critical mass of active virions (infectious virus particles) that have to invade your tissues and begin to reproduce there in order for you to become sick.

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