For many, the relaxation of coronation measures is a bright prospect. This does not apply to everyone: there are staff and students who may be vulnerable themselves, or have a vulnerable person in their environment, who view the relaxation with a certain amount of anxiety. At UT, we think it's important that there is room to discuss your hesitation and fear, and that we can work together to find solutions.
In a news report published by the NOS, epidemiologist Alma Tostmann of the Radboudumc gives a few useful tips for people in a vulnerable position:
- Ask the people you see to do a self-test. That greatly reduces the chance of infection;
- Ensure good ventilation in the room where you meet someone during the visit, and air afterwards; or meet up in the open air.
- Keep your distance;
- As an extra protection you can ask your visitors to wear a medical mask, and do the same yourself. Make sure it fits your face well. For even better protection, use an FFP2 mouth mask.
- Ask the people you are meeting to tell you what they have been doing for the past few days. If they have been seeing a lot of people or have just been to a disco, for example, it is wiser to postpone the visit.
"I can imagine it's uncomfortable to ask your visitor to do all this, but if you have no defences at all, these are things you can do together to greatly reduce the chance of infection. They are layers that you can apply to each other. But you can't rule out infection. You always have to think about that", says Tostmann to NOS. "The ultimate chance of infection also depends on how much virus is going around in society at the time."
You can read the whole article on the website of NOS (in Dutch, though Google Translate may be helpful).
