When it comes to getting sick with COVID-19, you might be thinking about this, and we have too. Danny Noman asked, "I want to go camping this summer and I'm wondering what's the risk of getting COVID-19."
We asked the experts: Katie Cary, vice president of infection prevention for HCA Continental Division; Dr. Nipunie Rajapakse, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at the Mayo Clinic; and Dr. Irfan N. Hafiz, infectious disease physician and Northwest Region chief medical officer at Northwestern Medicine.
Their take: Contracting COVID-19 from camping is low-risk.
"It's really not as much about the camping, but who you're interacting with," Hafiz said.
"You're spending much of your time outdoors. And we know the risk of transmission outdoors is low as well," Rajapaske said.
"Where the risk could come in is if, you know, there were shared showers, and then how those showers are managed. Is there somebody that cleans those showers? Ultimately, it's going to still come down to that social distancing piece of it. And if you're going to go to the showers and there's three stalls, then you should go with your three family members that you know are with you. For restrooms, everybody should be washing their hands when they leave the restroom, no matter what, pre-COVID. So I think that really corrects for any risk there, as long as social distancing can be maintained," Cary said.
If you have a question about your risk, send us a video to whatstherisk@newsy.com. You can see answers to other questions here.
