Srinagar, 03 June (KNS): Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) Wednesday said the COVID-19 pandemic is not going to go away and we are going to live with the virus.

President DAK, Dr Suhail Naik said that it is time to learn, educate, inform and communicate to the general public how we all are going to live with Covid-19.

According to statement issued to KNS, He said, while coming out of lockdown, it is important to understand how can we live with the novel virus ,while allowing the social sector and economies to reopen.

"The future course of life will be totally different from pre Covid-19 and two meter physical distancing , "mask for all" and hand washing are now new norms of life," he said.

Dr Naik said keeping in view the high communicability of the virus it seems whenever in future any deviation from health advisories or overcrowding is given a chance ,the virus will flourish and resulting consequences will be alarming.

"The threat of virus will not allow any big social or religious gatherings like marriage functions, school and college assemblies and piligrimage," he said.

DAK said there will be protocol based life for marriages, religious gatherings, offices, passengers traveling in buses, trains and planes adding the challenge lies in how to adopt new norms of life.

While coming out of lockdown, people need to take into account role of both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals spreading the virus in the community.

It said face masks can reduce viral shedding into the environment from such individuals.

"Both commercially available and homemade cloth masks and surgical masks can play a role," it said.

DAK appealed to people to strictly follow hand washing, face masks and physical distancing and which are very important measures towards reopening economies safely from coronavirus lockdowns.

The recent in Lancet Journal where a systematic review of 172 studies on COVID-19, SARS, and MERS provide evidence that current policies of at least 1 m physical distancing are associated with a large reduction in infection, and distances of 2 m might be more effective.

The data also suggest that wearing face masks protects people (both health-care workers and the general public) against infection by these coronaviruses, and that eye protection could confer additional benefit.

However, none of these interventions afforded complete protection from infection, and their optimum role might need risk assessment and several contextual considerations

The doctors body said the evidence supports the conclusion that more widespread risk-based face mask adoption can help to control the Covid-19 epidemic by reducing the shedding of droplets into the environment from asymptomatic individuals.

DAK said that Face masks may play an important role in situations where social distancing is not possible or unpredictable.

It said that the situations include public transport, stores and shopping areas, work places, within households, clinics, hospitals, care-homes, social care, and busy pavements.

“If used widely and correctly and on a risk basis, face masks, including homemade cloth masks, can reduce viral transmission,” added.