About COVID-19
COVID-19, or Coronavirus, is a highly contagious respiratory virus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic. It is transmitted primarily when people breathe infected droplets in the air, which are caused by a sick person coughing, sneezing, or breathing heavily.
Not everyone who has the virus shows symptoms. This means that people who seem healthy can infect others without knowing it.
The most important thing we can do to protect ourselves and our communities is to slow down the spread of infection by minimizing exposure.
Safety Practices for Maine Land Share
The following Safety Practices are designed to help slow down the spread of infection by minimizing the chances that any one of us will accidentally contract or spread the virus while sharing land or gardening.
1. Wear a face mask if you will be entering any shared indoor spaces with other land sharers, such as cars, houses, outhouses, or tool sheds.
- Make sure the mask covers your mouth, nose, and chin, and fits snuggly
- Avoid masks with valves (the virus can spread through the valve)
Masks are not required outdoors.
2. Maintain a safe physical distance.
- Keep at least 6 feet between yourself and others. If you’re not sure what this distance looks like, you can imagine someone you know who is 6’ tall lying down between you.
- Limit the number of people working in the garden so that safe physical distance can be easily maintained.
3. Practice regular, careful sanitation.
- Wash your hands frequently. Soap is very effective at killing the virus. Alcohol sanitizer (60-70% concentration) is also effective.
- Cough or sneeze into your sleeve or a tissue that fully and tightly covers your mouth. Dispose of the tissue immediately and clean your hands.
4. Stay home when sick, and seek medical advice and testing if possible. If you believe you have come into contact with someone who has the virus, quarantine for at least 10 days, and get tested if possible, before returning to gardening.
5. Choose a community “reminder” word. It’s easy to forget to follow some of these practices, and we may need friendly reminders. One easy way to do this is to agree on a word (humor is good!) that everyone can say to each other as needed, which means “don’t forget to follow the safety practices!”
- For example: you see someone about to walk inside a shared tool shed without a mask on. You call out, “banana!” and everyone knows that you’re reminding them to be more careful.
Credits: Key language and ideas in this document are drawn from the work of the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center Lots to Gardens staff; and from Hannah Traggis of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, whose work was done in consultation with the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, the Community Food Security Coalition at Tufts, the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future Food Policy Networks, and the Boston Food System listserv at Tufts.
Some reliable sources of information about COVID-19:
