With the dog days of summer upon is, it’s hard to remember that the fall will soon be arriving. However, there are a few things we can do now to help prepare ourselves for the third winter of dealing with the coronavirus, when case rates are likely to again spike as more socializing moves indoors. Here’s a few things everyone can do to help prevent the spread of the virus:

1. Get boosted. You can find information regarding where to get a booster from the Minnesota Department of Health, or check out this upcoming booster clinic being hosted by our friends at The Aliveness Project:

2. Mask up when indoors or in crowds. And make sure you’re using a good quality mask; Project N95 is a reputable dealer of medical-grade masks. Especially with the increased transmissibility of the Omicron sub-variants, it’s important to ditch the cloth masks in favor of KN95 or N95 masks whenever you can.

3. Pay attention to your local case rates to help gauge your risk. With so many people testing at home these days, viral loads in wastewater is often one of the best ways to get a snapshot of community transmission. The University of Minnesota tracks COVID-19 loads in wastewater across all of Minnesota, and the Metropolitan Council provides monitoring for the Twin Cities region.

4. Stay cautious but optimistic. Is it a total drag that we still have to deal with this virus after more than two years? Certainly. But the medical and public health communities have also made tremendous strides in understanding the virus and providing us the tools to keep us safe. We like this recent article by Andy Slavitt in The Atlantic that discusses three developments that could help get America out of the COVID-19 rut that we are in.