Part of an occasional series answering readers' questions about Maine.

Afterward two months of social distancing from loved ones, many Mainers are wondering when they can gather with family, hug their grandchildren and allow their children play with friends.

Those questions aren't easy ones. So we asked an expert.

Nether the governor's safer-calm order, gatherings of more than 10 people are prohibited and people are notwithstanding encouraged to keep their distance from ane another and utilize face coverings. But while the state'southward reopening plan focuses on businesses and public services, there has been less official guidance on when information technology volition exist OK to start socializing with people exterior of your household, and how to reunite safely.

Dr. Dora Anne Mills

Dr. Dora Anne Mills is chief wellness improvement officeholder at MaineHealth and a former Maine CDC director who, by the way, happens to be the sister of Gov. Janet Mills. She likewise has become someone many Mainers take looked to for straightforward advice.

We asked her to tackle some mutual reader questions about social distancing.

Q: When tin can Mainers expect to safely visit family unit or friends from whom they've been social distancing, such as grandparents, aunts and uncles?

A: In general, the slower we aggrandize our circle of friends and family unit we socialize with, the amend. With up to a two-week incubation period, COVID-19 can circulate for a while and commencement to surge before information technology can be detected. We are also learning more than every week about this virus, including how easily transmissible it is, especially through respiratory aerosol.

From an epidemiological standpoint, an effective strategy is to describe concentric circles that are increasingly larger, about every two weeks, so long equally the pandemic is not expanding in your community. For instance, if there is a nearby household of close family members (i.e., a quarantine group) yous are eager to run across, and so start by socializing with them. So if all is well, expand the circle to another household in two weeks. However, there are important caveats:

•  Keep members from each household (your quarantine group) at least 6 anxiety from those from the other household.
•  Make sure everyone is masked.
•  Minimize the number of people visiting.
•  Visit outdoors if at all possible.
•  Make sure anybody washes or sanitizes their hands before and after the visit as well equally after touching items handled past others.
•  Do non include, or minimize the exposure of, those who are at loftier-chance for severe infection.
•  Make sure households visiting with each other are from the same community or nearby.
•  Brand the visit brief, i.e., minimize the time people are together.

Q: Is information technology OK to gather if we stay exterior? Should nosotros article of clothing our face coverings even if we're trying to stay half-dozen feet autonomously?

A: The major chance factors for transmission include: gatherings of people; indoor gatherings; those in which people are close together (closer than 6 feet); those that include people who have traveled from areas of higher incidence (e.1000., from out of land or from southern Maine to northern Maine).

The longer the fourth dimension of the gathering and the more people gathered, the higher the risk. If the gathering involves singing, shouting or other energetic exhalations, and then droplets with the virus can travel much farther than vi anxiety.

Therefore, hither are some strategies to reduce risks:

•  Make certain visits are held with as few people as possible.
•  Confine visits to people from a maximum of ii households (quarantine groups).
•  Deport visits outdoors.
•  Maintain at least half dozen anxiety altitude between those who are not household members.
•  Exist sure everyone is masked (or has a facial roofing).
•  Agree visits over as footling time equally possible.
•  Make the visit brief, i.due east., minimize the fourth dimension people are together.
•  Don't hold visits involving people projecting their voices (which results in the virus traveling much farther than 6 anxiety).
•  Don't visit with people who are traveling from out of state or a place of higher incidence of COVID-19.
•  Anybody should wash or sanitize their hands before and later the visit besides equally later touching items handled by others.

Q:  When will grandparents be able to hug their grandkids? Staying 6 feet away is then hard.

A:  There is no easy answer to this. But it is important to remember that if grandparents are 65 or older or if any of those visiting are at high-chance for severe illness, it is especially important for them to stay away from others as much as possible. A lower-gamble in-person visit strategy would be a afar (at least 6 feet away) visit with masks on and held outdoors.

Q: What should parents with new babies be considering as they make up one's mind when to have extended family unit meet the infant?

A: Tragically, there take been some infant deaths from COVID-19, including here in the U.s.. We are learning more than every week nearly this novel virus and its impact on children. My personal opinion is to minimize visits with people outside of your household (quarantine group) and endeavor to maintain them via online technologies as much as possible. Strategies to minimize risks of in-person visits are to a higher place.

Q: Are playgrounds rubber? What near playing with friends?

A: If playgrounds are open and there are not others there, then they should be a relatively condom space. You tin clean off the equipment, though there is not much show that the virus can live on outdoor equipment for long and exist viable (i.e., contagious). It is more important to make sure the children launder or sanitize their hands afterward.

Q: Tin I go for a run, walk or hike with people I don't live with? What precautions I should accept if I do?

A: I have two friends I walk with. We walk on a path that is about eight feet wide, so we stay 6 feet apart, and we wearable masks. Because nosotros walk fast and talk, our respiratory droplets tin can easily project much more than vi anxiety, so I feel it'southward important we clothing masks. However, information technology's also challenging to wear masks while walking so fast. Every bit a consequence, I am taking more than walks with my children or by myself.

Q: Have you visited yet with your own family members who live outside of your household?

A: I took my kids to my ex-husband's camp and visited with him briefly while dropping them off, merely kept outdoors and masked.

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