Not touching your face is harder than it sounds

Practice reduces the risk of virus transmission to high-risk people

As noted by seemingly all competent public health authorities, there are simple ways to reduce your risk of getting not only COVID-19 caused by the SARSCOV-2 virus, but a variety of other illnesses like influenza, hand-foot-and-mouth disease and the common cold.

Not only do these measures keep you safe, but they also reduce the risk that you will transmit the virus to any high-risk people in your family and in the community.

As noted by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the top recommendations advises against touching your eyes, nose and mouth. This is harder than it sounds and it’s quite likely that you touched your eyes, nose or mouth while reading that very sentence.

I tried to count the number of times I touched my face in a day and gave up after an hour.

The Arlington, Virginia-based Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology notes that people touch their faces about 23 times per hour. That’s 23 chances per hour for coronavirus or any other virus to catch a ride into your system.

But it’s hard to stop. This is why the recommendation to stop touching your face is coupled with advice to wash hands regularly with soap and water. If you’re not near a sink, use a 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizer. The combination of the two reduces the risk of getting the virus into your mucous membranes.

So how can you stop touching your face? I wish there was an app that could alert you when it happens, but until then:

❚ Remember that although reducing the number of times you touch your face helps, it is nearly impossible to stop entirely.

❚ Enlist friends’ and co-workers’ support in reducing the number of times everyone touches their faces by reminding each other.

❚ Keep tissues handy and try to use them when touching your face to scratch your nose, etc.

❚ Now is a great time to stop biting your nails. And because it’s so hard to stop, keep washing your hands.

Tamara Curtin Niemi is an international public health consultant with 20 years of experience in preparedness and response to outbreaks and disasters.

GETTY IMAGES One of the top recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent the spread of illness is to avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.