The coronavirus outbreak has done a fair job of exposing how filthy your surfaces are. Keyboards, light switches, handrails on public transport, grocery cart handles-all are potential contaminants. By now it is common knowledge that washing your hands regularly and wearing masks in public is essential maintenance for avoiding COVID-19 infection. However, it is just as important, if not more, to regularly clean another surface you frequently touch: your phone.
Although the virus is typicallytransmitted by expelling respiratory droplets with a cough or sneeze, a recent study in the Journal of Hospital Infection found that coronavirus can survive on the smooth glass and plastic found in smartphones for as long as 9 days.
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Peter Hall, a public health professor, recently said in the Conversation that your phone is a “portable petri dish”. Touching a contaminated surface, or your face, and then a phone can easily transmit the virus to your screen. The mucus that carries COVID-19 can then dry on your phone allowing it to last longer, reports Slate.
According to a 2019 survey, people touch their phones 2,617 times per day on average, and experts estimate that the devices usually host 10 times more bacteria than toilet seats.
File Photo: A tourist wears a protective face mask at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand January 31, 2020 | Reuters“When you’ve been out in public and you return home, that’s when I would clean the phone to make certain that the phone is safe in your residence, so you don’t have to be washing your hands continuously subsequent to using it” said Michael Schmidt, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Apple recommends users to clean iPhones by rubbing them down with a microfiber cloth and warm soapy water after unplugging all cables.
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Google has instructed users to clean the backs and sides of Pixels with cleaning wipes or household soap, and to hand-wash the case fabric with mild soap or laundry detergent.
Apart from cleaning your phone, you can also prevent it from getting infected by not taking it out in the bathroom.
Cleaning your phone may actually be more effective at preventing coronavirus than wearing masks in public since touching your phone is an activity that you generally perform far more often than spending time in public places.
