A lesson in social distancing via mouse traps and ping pong balls

Social distancing or physical distancing remains one of the key measures to follow during the time of coronavirus pandemic. A new video shared by the Ohio Department of Public Health explains the importance of this practice and what happens if people fail to maintain social distancing.

Ever since WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, health workers and government departments are encouraging people to follow the rule of social distancing, a non-pharmaceutical measure that urges people to maintain physical distance between themselves and other people outside of your home. This is considered one of the best precautionary measures to prevent contracting the contagious infection from COVID-19 patients.

Many governments around the world are prompting citizens to practice social distancing as a part of preventive measures along with washing your hands frequently and practicing good hygiene. Meanwhile, Mirror reports that a video created by the Ohio Department of Health showcases the importance of social distancing with ping pong balls and mouse traps.

"A little space makes us all safer together," suggests the video that shows how a ping pong ball when dropped on the traps placed together, without any space in between, can trigger a chain reaction and throw all the mouse traps off the floor.

However, the second scenario shows the mouse traps placed at a distance from each other and when a ping pong ball is thrown over it, it simply bounces between the traps without even touching the mouse traps. This shows how space between the traps can break the chain reaction and prevent the spread of the disease that has claimed nearly 125,000 lives so far.

The video was shared by the Ohio Health Department on its official Twitter account with a promise to the people that they are in this together.

"Social distancing works. We are all #InThisTogetherOhio," reads the caption.

The video that was shared last week became viral and has garnered 20.5 million views. It was retweeted more than 44,000 times.

So far, COVID-19, a deadly respiratory illness has more than 2,000,231 confirmed cases across the globe. As for Ohio, it has reported 7,280 cases as of Wednesday, according to Worldometer.