A Message About the Coronavirus from Swingtopia Dance
As one official in WA put it, “If you take anything from this message, it’s this: Wash your hands often, and don’t touch your face. By ‘wash your hands’, I mean, wash them as if you’ve just cut up some jalapeno chillies and need to remove your contact lenses.”
Wow! … okay, so I didn’t expect to be writing this a day after I was joking about the Corona bug. 😅😅😅
Yesterday WA had its third case of the Coronavirus. This time it was a woman who had been travelling on a flight with 500 other people.
It seems that Perth is only just beginning to experience the Coronavirus.
Here at Swingtopia we want to be proactive in slowing down the course of this disease.
The key is we can take precautions that keep us safe while still enjoying swing dancing.
We have the opportunity to protect the more vulnerable members of our community, and to eradicate this disease before it gets a permanent hold anywhere in the world.
Current Health Department projections suggest that WA will most likely have an influx of cases in April and May, with the worst period being in August. So this will be an on-going situation.
What You Can Do
Hygiene is at the centre of what you can do. We ask that people keep these guidelines when they wish to go dancing. Most of these guidelines are no different to anything you should already be doing to avoid other kinds of illnesses such as the cold and flu.
Keep calm and remain thoughtful.
If you are sick, don’t go dancing.
Avoid going near sick people.
When dancing, favour open hold positions. This is something Lindy Hop excels at!
Wash your hands with soap before and after classes or socials.
Don’t touch your face
Cough or sneeze into your elbow or a tissue, then wash your hands
Have fun dancing!
NOTE: If you’re dancing at the Mustang, they never have soap, so bring your own.
What We Can Do
At Swingtopia we believe there’s a shared responsibility between the individual and the collective.
To this end Swingtopia Dance will:
Remind people to wash their hands
Have alcoholic based hand sanitiser available at the door to all classes and socials
Inform everyone if the current situation in Perth changes
Remain on top of current information about the spread of the Coronavirus, work to Reduce risks, and listen to recommendations from government and international bodies.
If You're Travelling
The Coronavirus needn’t be the end of your plans to travel overseas.
Here’s is what you can do if you’re travelling.
Don’t panic
Take a page out of Roni’s book (thanks Roni!) and if you travel outside the state, especially to a place with confirmed reports of Coronavirus, give yourself a quarantine week afterwards where you don’t go to anything (including dance classes) so you know you’re not carrying anything.
Educate yourself. Find out if the countries you’re visiting (including your stop-overs) have confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Follow all travel recommendations from government and intergovernmental agencies
If the dance organization you’re visiting is located in a place with confirmed cases, listen to their policies on it, and if they don’t have policies you can be a conscientious citizen and raise the question with them.
Do all the other hygiene things listed above that you would normally do to avoid illness, and be especially vigilant in airports, socials, dance classes, and the place you are staying if you happen to be staying with others.
Have fun dancing!
Last but not least, COVID-19 does not yet have a vaccine. The flu virus already kills thousands of people each year and is vaccine preventable. We encourage people to get their flu vaccines.
Azza Gee.
Azza is a lifelong swing dancer, the founder of Swingtopia Dance in Perth, Western Australia, and a lover of Bubble Tea. Sign in to comment below, or send your thoughts to info@swingtopiadance.com.
Sign in to comment below, or send your thoughts to info@swingtopiadance.com.