The number 1 thing we can do to protect ourselves from Coronavirus (at least the #1 thing we know at this time) is to wash our hands for at least 20 second with soap and water.
If this isn’t possible, we should wash our hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that has at least 60% alcohol.
I’m sure you’ve all heard the above recommendations. This is all over the internet and news. Doesn’t seem like this should be so hard to do, but the most important details about washing your hands correctly may not as obvious as you might think.
How exactly do you wash your hands properly?
Here’s step-by-step directions. Now, bear with me here. This may seem a bit tedious or obvious, but it’s crucial you understand how to do it correctly!
- Turn on the water – warm water is best
- Wet your hands
- Lather up with soap – use a bar or pump liquid soap
- Continue lathering the entire front and back side of your hands up to your wrists. Pay close attention to the crevices and under your fingernails.
- Do this for AT LEAST 20 seconds
- Wash the soap off your hands with the water that is still running.
- Now, here’s the tricky part. Unless you’re in front of a faucet that has a motion detector, you’ll have to turn the faucet off with your hands or turn it on several times if it has a timer. This is a potential problem – you just turned the faucet on with your dirty hands. You don’t want to touch the dirty faucet with your clean hands.
- The answer – Dry your hands with a disposable towel and, after drying your hands, the final step is to turn the faucet off with the towel, then discard it.
- If the sink has a manual push to activate timer, using a disposable towel is also effective.
- If you’re at home and no one has been exposed to the Coronavirus, you likely can be a little more lax with this step. I’ll leave this decision up to you.
Tip: When you’re in public, you’ve likely touched at least a few less than optimally cleaned hard surfaces, wash BEFORE and AFTER you use the toilet.
Follow these simple tips to avoid accidental contamination.
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