Here is some basic cleanliness information to keep yourself and others protected in any situation. Please note, these are only recommendations.
- Greeting (my personal recommendation)
- Instead of shaking hands, try waving, or using the Indian namaste. It is respectful, and acknowledges the other person from a distance as well. This way, everyone can keep their germs to themselves. There is less need to use hand sanitizers, soap, water, and paper towels.
- If you do come in contact with others, do not touch your face, nose, eyes, and mouth. These are some of the easiest ways to transfer germs to yourself.
- Cleaning your hands:
- Wash your hands properly. This means on the insides of your fingers, back of the hand, and the bit of your forearm that has exposed skin. Plain soap can disrupt the virus’ surface by lysing it (cutting it open), effectively rendering it useless. This is different from saying soap kills the virus. Nothing does, as of now. Thus, it is important to use soap, water, and FRICTION. Washing hands can reduce transmission by 30 to 50 %, and reduce pandemic potentials by 34 to 60 %.
- Hand sanitizer usage:
- Use a hand sanitizer with at least 60 % alcohol content.
- The following link has excellent information on how to use hand sanitizers properly – https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/hand-washing/art-20046253
- This link tells you why hand sanitizers work in general – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513254/
- Coughing and sneezing:
- If you need to cough, please use the crease between your forearm and upper arm (the opposite side of your elbow) to sneeze and cough. Do not use your hands or palm. Do not cough or sneeze in open air.
- Surfaces:
- Viruses can stay on surfaces longer than most bacteria, and this is why it is important to keep yourself clean. The coronavirus is expected to live on surfaces for up to 9 days. Compare this to measles viruses that can only survive for 2 hours on surfaces, or Flu viruses that only last 15 minutes on tissues and 24 hrs on other surfaces.
- What are surfaces? They include plastic, metal, glass, soft surfaces (skin, fabrics, etc.)
- If you get in contact with someone and instead of touching your face, you reach out to another object (purse, cell phone, door handle, jacket, etc.), you will then transfer the germs to those things, which will need disinfecting.
- How to clean surfaces
- Bleach or sodium hypochlorite: use as 0.1 % concentration with a minimum of 1 minute incubation.
- Ethanol: Use minimum of 60 % concentration with a minimum of 1 minute incubation.
- Hydrogen peroxide: Use a minimum concentration of 0.5 % with a minimum 1 minute incubation.
- What does 1 minute incubation mean? When you spray the solution, leave it alone for a few minutes, and THEN wipe it. Don’t just spray and wipe immediately, as that is useless.
- Masks:
- Due to the severe shortage of masks, please do not hoard masks or filters. Read this post before deciding otherwise.
- Make your home a clean space
- If traveling outside the house, then before entering your house, try keeping your shoes at the door.
- Remember, if someone sneezes near you, you will have droplets on your clothes including shoes.
- Remove jackets that may have residue of germs, and then wash your hands.
- Washing laundry
- All contaminated material (that would include the jackets people have sneezed on) should be washed at 60 C or 140 F along with bleach. This means that if you wash things at a lower temperature, the virus will persist.
Please note, I am not a medical doctor. I am a ex-researcher and a biochemist.