From Subud USA:
Dear Regional Chairs,
The current coronavirus outbreak has sparked a lot of questions and concern in this country and around the world. To ensure that we do our best to protect the health and safety of our Subud USA members, we recommend that group/center leaders monitor recommendations from the CDC website as well as from their local health departments to ensure their centers are up to date with the latest information and that they communicate this information to their members as needed. Some regions, such as Subud California, are already in contact with their members, and we thank them for sharing their information with us.
If you have not already done so, we urge you to forward the CDC guidelines and steps to prevent illness listed below to the members of your region. For those regions who offer phone-in latihans, it may be useful to include call-in information in your outreach for members who are unable to attend public gatherings.
The following are the CDC guidelines for people who are older and/or have a chronic medical condition:
Avoid close contact with people who are sick
- Take everyday preventive actions
- Clean your hands often
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing, or having been in a public place.
- If soap and water are not available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
- To the extent possible, avoid touching high-touch surfaces in public places – elevator buttons, door handles, handrails, handshaking with people, etc. Use a tissue or your sleeve to cover your hand or finger if you must touch something.
- Wash your hands after touching surfaces in public places.
- Avoid touching your face, nose, eyes, etc.
- Clean and disinfect your home to remove germs: practice routine cleaning of frequently touched surfaces (for example: tables, doorknobs, light switches, handles, desks, toilets, faucets, sinks & cell phones)
- Avoid crowds, especially in poorly ventilated spaces. Your risk of exposure to respiratory viruses like COVID-19 may increase in crowded, closed-in settings with little air circulation if there are people in the crowd who are sick.
- Avoid all non-essential travel including plane trips, and especially avoid embarking on cruise ships.
- If COVID-19 is spreading in your community, take extra measures to put distance between yourself and other people to further reduce your risk of being exposed to this new virus.
- Stay home as much as possible.
Centers may want to consider posting these guidelines and/or investigate the possibility of increasing their frequency of cleaning. Consider taking extra care to sanitize community kitchen and latihan areas, including wiping down surfaces such door knobs, drawer handles, and counters using spray cleaner and disposable paper towels. Those centers and groups who are offering social time may want to request that members bring their own lunch in lieu of the traditional potluck, and also use disposable paper cups and plates until future notice.
We wish you well during this extraordinary time!
Sincerely,
Lucas Boladian and Philip Lindstrom
