As countries and cities start to reopen, residents have to weigh the risks of going to stores, parks, and work.
The relative risks of visiting these places can be difficult to parse out. According to experts, ways to determine how risky an activity or place is include how easy it is to social distance, whether it’s indoors, how well ventilated a space is.
Here are six key factors to consider whenever you leave your home.
Even simple activities like running to the grocery store or hanging out in a park can be mentally taxing these days, since they all require an assessment of our risk of getting the coronavirus. Even as some businesses reopen and states report downward trends in cases, those questions will likely hover over decisions for years to come.
According to infectious-disease experts, there are several key ways to determine how risky an activity or place is. Coronavirus transmission risk is somewhat lower outside than indoors, for example, though the most important factors to consider are how close you’ll get to other people and for how long.
“This virus really likes people being indoors in an enclosed space for prolonged periods of close face-to-face contact,” William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, previously told Business Insider.
Other aspects to consider are how well ventilated an indoor space is, and whether patrons and staff are wearing masks.