Some people with Ulcerative Colitis may be at greater risk associated with COVID-19, Crohn’s and Colitis organizations around the world suggest. The chart on the left, issued by the Crohn’s and Colitis Canada shows the risks of COVID-19 associated with age, inflammation severity, and commonly prescribed medication for IBD.
If you or a loved one with UC find themselves in the medium- or high-risk category, you might want to consider the following precautions:
- You and household members – work from home, if possible or ask your employer to make reasonable accommodation. If you live in a household with multiple individuals, ask if they can work from home to minimize their contacts. If your household members are essential workers and MUST go out, follow these safety tips.
- Consider self-isolating in a separate room. This might be especially relevant for those at high-risk who live with essential workers who go out. If possible, use a separate bathroom. You can either isolate yourself or the person in your household who goes out. Use separate towels, utensils, think about shared spaces.
- Minimize all outing and social visits from others to your home. This will help reduce any possible exposure while you are out and exclude the possibility of someone else inadvertently bringing the virus into your home.
- Grocery Shopping: Buy more, and go less often. Many grocery stores aim to take precautions by sanitizing carts, attempting to distance people in lines, etc. However, distancing can be difficult to enforce and maintain at grocery stores during check out lines and at the register. Best to go less frequently – once every two or three weeks (yes, it can be done) and stock up on essentials. Here is our list to stock up your pantry.
- Think about who is cooking food in the household. The process of cooking involves someone’s close contact with food: touching it, tasting it, and breathing over it. If someone in your household must go out and inadvertently come into contact with others, consider if they are the person who should cook in your home.
- Consider eating separately. If you are high-risk and someone in your household goes out, consider that it may not be easy to maintain a 6 ft. distance at a dinner table. Speaking while eating in close proximity may release droplets that may carry the virus, scientists have indicated.