Why Exercising in Parks is Now a Growing Concern

Many of the UK’s local governments are contemplating plans of closing public parks if people continue to violate social distancing measures when exercising.

The UK government is concerned that as parks become crowded with people not staying far enough from, or sitting near, each other on park benches, there is still great danger that the virus will continue to spread. After all, contracting the disease can be asymptomatic, which means an infected person will not immediately manifest or experience the known symptoms of Covid-19.

Why Letting People Assemble in Parks Worries UK Governments

Professor John Edmunds of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine explained how the novel coronavirus disease can be transmitted:

One is when an infected person contaminates a surface, which another person will touch with his bare hands. If that person will continue to touch his face and other surfaces without washing or disinfecting his or her hands, then the disease could be transmitted to his or her person. If so, he or she becomes another carrier of the disease, capable of transmitting the disease to others.

When in close proximity to a carrier of the contagion who is still in the asymptomatic stage, the latter could release tiny particles that stay suspended in the air for a brief moment. If one is standing close to such a person, he or she would breathe in the minute contaminants, making it possible for the transmission of the disease to transpire.

The most common ways by which the Covid-19 spread is by way of saliva droplets released when coughing or sneezing. A park bench, a ball or even the grass on which park visitors sit on, can become surfaces on which large droplets containing the coronavirus could land.

In the first two scenarios the best mitigation in spreading the virus is to bring down tomzero level the number of people staying outdoors. In the matter of contracting the disease by way of droplets, maintaining a distance of at least 6 feet or 2 meters between each other, even among household members, can prevent the further spread of the disease.

New Police Guidelines for Residents Who Exercise Outdoors

Last April 16, a new set of police guidelines were published to help the general public determine when or where engaging in exercise is reasonable.

According to the publication, driving to the countryside for a walk is reasonable exercise for persons who spend more time walking than driving. However, if the travel requires greater driving time than the length of time it will take to exercise, then the trip is not reasonable.

Persons engaged in outdoor exercise are expected to take short breaks. What is not acceptable is when brief periods of exercise are followed by long hours of sunbathing or simply hanging out, and doing nothing while outdoors.

People in households should continue their exercise regimen at home, if at they are already experiencing the preliminary symptoms of the coronavirus infection,

If the government will not prevent people from passing and transmitting the disease further, the need to impose lockdown until medical interventions, like vaccines or antibiotics, would arrive. The problem though is that it will take more than a year of testing before such interventions can be approved for treatments

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