 Hello and welcome to COVID Facts in 5. Your comprehensive look at St. Lucia's management and mitigation of the novel coronavirus. I'm Humity Mark. While anyone can contract COVID-19, adults with chronic diseases are at an increased risk of CBI illness from the virus. This may result in hospitalisation and they may require intense care and mechanical ventilation. It could also result in the death of this individual. Some of these underlying conditions include diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, HIV and lupus. It is important for persons with such health conditions to be among the first to be vaccinated. Health educator Nadej Smith Lambert advises on the measures for the prevention of complications in persons with underlying health conditions. So for persons living with chronic conditions, they are priority as it comes to getting the vaccine. So they will be getting the vaccine in our first set of rollouts after the health care or priority health care workers. COVID-19 is new and this is why there is so much focus towards it. However, COVID-19 will be here for a while. We're not expecting it to go away anytime soon. But however, our chronic conditions are with us for a lifetime basically. And it is very, very important that even with COVID-19, it's more important now for persons to adhere to managing their chronic conditions. When I say managing, I'm speaking about taking their medication. I know a lot of times when persons take medication, as soon as they feel a little better, they leave, they stop taking their medication, but no, you need to continue taking your medication. You need to continue speaking to your health care provider, whether it be a private doctor or at the community wellness centres, you need to go visit them to ensure that you're managing your chronic condition the right way. Basically, what you want to do is you want to continue making healthy food choices. So most persons with chronic conditions, there are certain things that you're supposed to eat and certain things that you need to stay away from. We want you to continue doing it. You would know based on your chronic condition. Physical activity, I know that a lot of persons think because it's COVID, they shouldn't go out, but you don't have to go to a physical activity place like a gym, but you can go walking, you can do some exercises right here at home in your bedroom, in your living room, wherever you feel comfortable. Taking your medication, as I said before, will also help build your immunity a healthy way. So we know that a lot of persons are at home, some persons are working on rotation and some persons, because of their chronic condition, they decide to work at home full-time and some persons are unemployed, but you need to be careful. I know how it is when you're home, the more you stay home tonight, the more you tend to eat. So you need to be careful as to what you eat and how many times a day you eat. Getting enough sleep is very important to build immunity. You need to get enough sleep. Recommended sleeping hours, seven to eight hours. And what you need to do is to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time. It is important to try that. Stop smoking. If you're smoking, you need to stop smoking. Limit your alcohol intake. So when we're building immunity, all of those things are necessary. Explore stress-reducing activity. So it is important to try your best to reduce your stress levels. How do we do that? And it's just as simple as maybe going to the beach, having lunch at the beach, doing a picnic, speaking to friends that you feel comfortable, expressing your feelings and how you coping on a daily basis. It's very important to actually speak to other persons. Visit your healthcare provider for more information and it is also very important to manage your emotional changes. So other persons, when they have chronic conditions, it's new and some people feel angry, some people feel sad, some people feel lonely, but you need to find ways to manage your emotional. It is very important if you take vitamins to continue taking your vitamins. I know some people do the lemon water, a little lime water. It is important that you continue doing those things to build your immunity. Thank you for sharing that with us, Nadirj. Don't miss the next episode of COVID-19 Facts in 5. I'm Hermione Mark.