Healthcare

Hygiene tips to help keep COVID-19 away

Written by Ellie Chow

 

As lockdown will be eased in stages, it is important to remain alert and maintain good personal hygiene. This month we will focus on how to maintain good hygiene and stay safe. I hope the following advice and information are helpful.

  1. Keep hand hygiene
  • Wash your hands with soap and water, scrubbing for 20 seconds, or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
  • It doesn’t matter whether you use warm or cold water, as long as you use soap, both are equally effective killing germs and viruses
  • Do you know, on average a person touches their face 23 times in an hour. Avoiding touching your face is actually harder than it sounds. We touch our eyes, mouth or noses, and these are the mucosal surfaces that COVID19 infects.
  • You could also visit this link for further information https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/best-way-to-wash-your-hands/
  • If you are using hand sanitizer, make sure it contains at least 60% alcohol, rubbing it for 20-30 seconds until your hand feel dry.
  1. Social distancing
  • It is important to keep your distance from other people. Avoid going to places that are crowded with large amounts of people. Stay 1 metre apart from other people. As sneezing or a cough droplet could travel, it is therefore crucial to keep a social distance to protect yourself.
  • Try to avoid crowds. You could walk to your destination or biking instead of taking a bus.
  • Avoid shaking hands or hugging. Try to use alternative ways for greeting. Such as wave, tip your hat, nodding etc. These ways will definitely reduce the amount of contact with other people.

 

  1. Wear a mask
    • Wear a mask or face covering in areas that might be difficult to have social distancing, such as in supermarkets or grocery stores.
    • An individual might be asymptomatic even if they are positive with COVID-19 and could infect others. Wearing a mask can block respiratory secretions, so it can protect yourself and others.
  1. Keep surfaces clean
    • Although COVID-19 is spread by person to person, it is also possible that it could be spread by touching a contaminated item or surface then touching your mouth, nose or eyes. Therefore, here are some cleaning tips for you:
    • Use the right product. Using household cleaning and disinfection products will effectively eliminate viruses from household surfaces.
    • Use the product correctly. This is an important step, people usually just wipe the surface and go, which is a common mistake. The procedures should be cleaning the dirt off the surface, then wipe it with disinfectant. Do not dry the surfaces after wiping, leave them for a few minutes as per the instructions on the product label. The contact time with the disinfectant is actually when it kills the germs.
    • Clean the right surfaces.
  • High touch areas, such as doorknobs, light switches, toilets, taps, remote controls
  • Surfacessuch as kitchen tables, desktops and other places that droplets can land on
  • And your mobile phone!!
    • Do not reuse any disinfectant wipes, as it would contaminate surfaces and transfer germs. Make sure you throw it away and use a new one when cleaning another surface.
    • Make sure you keep the window open while using bleach cleaners, for ventilation

Good hand hygiene and proper disinfectant practices are always good habits to keep. For more tips about cleaning and hygiene tips, you can also refer to.

https://www.unicef.org/mena/stories/cleaning-and-hygiene-tips-help-keep-covid-19-virus-out-your-home

 

If you have any queries, feel free to contact us and speak to our pharmacy team.

 

Ellie Chow

Trainee Pharmacist

Lowdham Pharmacy

01159663228

 

 

 

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