Help prevent COVID-19 with vaccinations
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized certain COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use. Studies show that the COVID-19 vaccine is effective in preventing you from getting COVID-19. Getting the COVID-19 vaccine will also keep you from getting very sick even if you have COVID-19.
The COVID-19 shot is an important tool to help us get back to normal. Learn more about the benefits of immunizations and how to get them.
Wash your hand
The best way to prevent illness is to avoid contact (or contact with others) with this virus. First, practice simple hygiene. Wash your hands often with soap and water for 20 seconds - especially after using the bathroom, before eating and after coughing, sneezing or blowing your nose. Learn how to wash your hands to prevent the spread of coronavirus and other illnesses.
If soap and water are not available, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that consumers use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% ethanol (also known as ethyl alcohol).
The FDA continues to warn consumers about hand sanitizers that contain methanol, also known as wood alcohol. Methanol is very toxic and should never be used in hand sanitizer. If absorbed through the skin or swallowed, methanol can cause serious health problems, such as seizures and blindness, or even death.
Before you buy hand sanitizer or use some that you already have at home, check this list to see if hand sanitizer may have methanol. Most hand sanitizers found to contain methanol do not list it as an ingredient on the label (because it is not an accepted ingredient in the product), so it is important to check the list. book. FDA to see if company or product is included. Continue to check this list regularly, as it is being updated regularly.
The FDA has also expanded the list to include hand sanitizers that contain other harmful ingredients and products with less than required levels of active ingredients.
FDA advises consumers not to use hand sanitizers listed by manufacturers. Learn how to find your hand sanitizer on the list and how to use it safely.
Wear a mask and avoid crowds
Avoid crowds and poorly ventilated spaces. Avoid close contact (at least 6 feet, or about two arm's length) with people outside your home, even if they don't show signs of illness, in both indoor and outdoor spaces. Some people with no symptoms can spread the coronavirus.
The CDC recommends wearing masks — not N95 masks — in public, especially when other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (for example, at grocery stores and pharmacies).
Effective February 2, 2021, masks are required on planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation when entering, entering, or leaving the United States and at transportation hubs of this country. United States as airports and train stations.
Wearing a mask in public can help slow the spread of the virus. They can help prevent people who may have the virus and don't know it from spreading it to others by helping to prevent respiratory droplets from getting into the air and into other people when you cough, sneeze, or speak. story.
Learn how to protect yourself and others from coronavirus. And if you're fully vaccinated, take these precautions to protect yourself and others.
N95 respirators should be reserved for healthcare workers, first responders, and other frontline workers whose jobs put them at much higher risk of contracting COVID-19.
Donate blood and plasma
Maintaining an adequate blood supply is critical to public health. Blood donors help patients of all ages and backgrounds - burn and accident victims, heart surgery and organ transplant patients, and those battling cancer and threatening conditions other life. The American Red Cross estimates that one person in the United States needs blood every two seconds.
If you are healthy and feeling well, contact your local donation center to make an appointment. Donation centers are taking steps to ensure donations are safe.