Reaching Out

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Anchor lead: How can you manage your own feelings of isolation in the midst of the pandemic? Elizabeth Tracey reports

As social distancing has become the new normal and many businesses are closed as COVID-19 continues its global spread, are you feeling isolated? Karen Swartz, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins, offers some tips to help you cope.

Swartz: Probably the most important thing from a shelter in place point of view is for people to stay connected, because social isolation can be very challenging. So here are a few things you can do. One is to have contact with people you care about, and if you have the kind of phone where you can FaceTime, to see them. I think that will be reassuring for you and for them. Another is to make sure you have some physical exercise every day. Whether that’s exercising at home, which is certainly what you should do if there’s a concern that you’ve been exposed, but don’t yet have symptoms, or going for a walk by yourself.  :32

Swartz reminds people that keeping a six foot distance from others will greatly reduce the likelihood of infection. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.