At this point, we have all been washing our hands intensely to protect ourselves (and others) from the coronavirus. While this is a crucial preventative measure, other elements need to be kept clean too.
A regular daily measure is to clean your floors and kitchen counter regularly. What the coronavirus times have sensitised us to do, if you weren’t already, is to clean all doorknobs and handles as well.
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As much as we expertly count to 20 seconds when washing our hands, there are other critical home surfaces and items we often carry on our person that need frequent sanitising as well to avoid unknowingly spreading the virus.
This is in addition to knowing what to use for an effective clean. According to Nicola Hickman, a brand manager of sterilising product range at Milton, “What most people don’t realise is that, according to recent scientific information, human coronaviruses can remain infectious on inanimate surfaces for up to 72 hours. A surface disinfectant containing 0.12% PCMX (Chloroxylenol) or 0.1% sodium hypochlorite has been proven to be effective against previous strains of coronaviruses after a contact time of only five minutes.”
So, these are five surfaces you should definitely not forget sanitising:
Cellphones and laptops
After you wash your hands, you grab your phone, right? So it only makes sense that you sanitise that too. Of course, you don’t want to damage the display on your screen.
According to Apple, it’s safe to use a 70 percent isopropyl alcohol wipe to wipe the exterior surfaces of your iPhone gently. However, the company warns against the use of bleach and submerging your phone in any cleaning agent.
As you continue working from home or passing time on your laptop, you should disinfect it regularly too.
Keys
If you’re leaving your house on those essential-only trips to the grocery store or pharmacy, the keys you carry around will need disinfecting as well.
The World Health Organization states that we don’t know for sure how long the virus survives on surfaces, but it may stick on them for a few hours or up to several days.
Nightstands and dresser
The World Health Organization also confirmed that contamination on surfaces is the primary way that Covid-19 spreads, so ensuring your surfaces are clean is one of the main ways to prevent exposure.
When you’re home, in addition to the kitchen counters and door handles, it will be useful to sanitise your nightstand and your dresser.
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Bank cards
Banks suggest you cease the use of your cards for the time being and instead use cardless payment apps, tap your card at the pay points, or use your banking app’s cardless feature.
However, if you are using your bank cards, or any other cards, make sure they are disinfected too.
What do you do to ensure your home is thoroughly disinfected? Let us know here.
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