Bulletin No. 1, 2020

The Corona Chronicle 17 Only limited catering service during this period was maintained. Restaurants and canteens that remained open were required to perform body temperature screening on each customer before admission. A limited number of people were allowed to sit together at one table. All customers were requested to wear face masks at any time except when consuming food or drinks. Never have we gone this far to stay apart. ‘At the heart of social distancing is preventing mass gatherings,’ said Dr. Scotty Luk , Director of UHS. He explained that when two people socialize, the chances of infection are many times greater than if they do not; when it gets to four people, assuming none of them is wearing a mask, the likelihood becomes exponentially higher. ‘With social distancing, we can contain the disease to the point where there aren’t too many patients for the medical system to handle,’ he said. With too many cases at any one time, disaster ensues. ‘What worries us the most and what many fail to grasp is it doesn’t end with the medical system collapsing. Following the meltdown in the healthcare sector is the city’s entire infrastructure being devastated. Hospitals are unable to treat patients with other medical needs, while funeral services are put under massive strain.’ Living in the age of social distancing can be lonely, inconvenient and even frightening, but short of a new vaccine, it is the best way to slow the spread of the virus and to keep disaster at bay. Dr. Scotty Luk Director of University Health Service