How to disinfect your home during the coronavirus pandemic.
How to disinfect your home during the coronavirus pandemic
It’s easy to forget about the new normal for a moment as you go about your day: You return from a quick trip to the grocery store and drop your reusable bags on the kitchen countertop, or your dog’s leash goes from resting on a bench at the park to resting on your dining table or the back of a chair.
Yep, you can bring germs into your home, no matter how much social distance you are maintaining during the novel coronavirus outbreak.
And while you are hyper-aware that you need to wash your hands often, you also need to kick up your overall germ-killing game. To do so, it helps to know what in your home you should be cleaning and disinfecting and how often, as well as what products are effective in combating the virus.
First, there’s the bad news: “This virus is quite transmissible through relatively casual contact, making this pathogen very hard to contain,” said James Lloyd-Smith, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA who recently co-authored a study about how long COVID-19 lasts on certain surfaces.
However, here’s the good news: Because coronaviruses in general are enveloped, their flimsy shell makes them easily destroyed by disinfectants, according to medical and science experts.
Moreover, in an interview with Trevor Noah of “The Daily Show,” infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci counseled calm.
“You don’t want to be obsessive-compulsive about wiping everything down that you go near,” said Fauci, who nevertheless cautioned about shaking hands right now or using potentially contaminated doorknobs without then washing your hands.
Social distancing and handwashing remain the recommended defense.
Cleaning vs. disinfecting
It’s important to know that cleaning and disinfecting are separate things — cleaning removes dirt, food and other impurities that can contain germs, while disinfecting kills those germs, according to the American Cleaning Institute.
The cleaning products industry group’s “Coronavirus and Cleaning” lists recommendations that include cleaning any dirty surfaces with soap and water before disinfecting to remove excecss dirt or grime, letting surfaces air dry after disinfecting and rinsing with water after air drying any surfaces that come in contact with food.
What to disinfect
The virus that causes COVID-19 could last hours or even days on some common surfaces, according to the study co-authored by UCLA’s Lloyd-Smith and others at the National Institutes of Health, CDC and Princeton and published March 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The researchers found the virus is detectable for up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to three days on plastic and stainless steel. It is also detectable for up to three hours in aerosols, they found.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends daily cleaning and disinfection of “frequently touched surfaces (including) tables, doorknobs, light switches, countertops, handles, desks, phones, keyboards, toilets, faucets and sinks.”
A few others not mentioned on the CDC list to clean and disinfect daily are remote controls, hardbacked chairs and toiletries and makeup.
A special note on cellphones: They are reportedly “one of the dirtiest things we encounter daily,” and it is important to use disinfectant wipes or a rubbing alcohol solution every day on yours. Though there might be some confusion because of their name, Clorox wipes do not include bleach and are safe to disinfect phones, including screens.
Other daily tasks to cut down on germ spread are sweeping/ light-mopping the kitchen floor, washing the dishes and sanitizing kitchen sponges (in the microwave or dishwasher).
On a weekly basis, all sinks, mirrors, toilets and waste bins should be cleaned and disinfected, and all hard-surface floors should be mopped every two weeks.
As for laundry and other softsurface cleaning, in general, viruses live longer on hard surfaces than on soft, more porous ones such as fabric, according to the Mayo Clinic.
For laundry handling, the CDC’s guidelines include washing items using the warmest appropriate water setting and drying items completely. It also said to avoid shaking laundry to cut down on the risk of dispersing the virus through the air. Ideally, a disposable bag liner should be used in the clothes hamper.
For soft surfaces like carpets, rugs and drapes, the CDC said to remove visible contamination if present and clean with appropriate cleaners indicated for use on these surfaces.
The rules change when someone in the home is self-isolating with suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19; the CDC’s recommendations can be found in the coronavirus section of cdc.gov.
Effective tools
Most common EPA-registered household disinfectants, diluted household bleach solutions and alcohol solutions with at least 70% alcohol should be effective, the CDC said. You should follow product label instructions and make sure you have good ventilation while using the products.
The American Chemistry Council has updated its list of commercially available, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-approved products that can be used against the novel coronavirus. While the list contains such recognizable brands as Clorox and Lysol, it also is a source to find less familiar brands if the known products aren’t available.
You also can mix a diluted bleach solution as a disinfectant; the CDC recommends 4 teaspoons of bleach per quart of water, or one-third of a cup of bleach per gallon of water. It also warns to mix and use the solution in a properly ventilated space and not combine bleach with ammonia or any other cleanser.
The CDC said gloves should be worn while cleaning and disinfecting. Disposable gloves are now in short supply, so if you clean and disinfect with reusable gloves, “those gloves should be dedicated for cleaning and disinfection of surfaces for COVID-19 and should not be used for other purposes,” the CDC said.
Busting a few myths:
YOU’VE GOT MAIL » The U.S. Postal Service said there is no evidence that COVID-19 is being spread through the mail, but leaving cardboard-box deliveries outside overnight or giving them a onceover with a disinfectant wipe could be done as a precaution.
CAN YOU STILL HUG THE FURRY HOUSE MEMBERS? » The CDC states: “There is no reason at this time to think that any animals, including pets, in the United States might be a source of infection” for COVID-19 and that no pets have been reported sick with the virus to date. It adds that “at this time, there is no evidence that the virus that causes COVID-19 can spread to people from the skin or fur of pets.”
DON’T WASTE THE VODKA » Consumer Reports says that despite widely circulated recipes on social media and the internet, homemade hand sanitizers, vodka and distilled white vinegar mixes are ineffective and could give a false sense of security if used.