Respiratory viruses like coronavirus disease spread when mucus or droplets containing the virus get into your body through your eyes, nose or throat. Often, the virus can easily spread from one person to the next via hands.
Here’s everything you need to know about how to wash your hands the right way:
- How do I wash my hands properly?
To eliminate all traces of the virus on your hands, a quick scrub and a rinse won’t cut it. Below is a step-by-step process for effective handwashing.
Step 1: Wet hands with running water
Step 2: Apply enough hand sanitizer to cover wet hands
Step 3: Scrub all surfaces of the hands – including back of hands, between fingers and under nails – for at least 20 seconds.
Step 4: Rinse thoroughly with running water
Step 5: Dry hands with a clean cloth or single-use towel
- How long should I wash my hands for?
You should wash your hands for at least 20-30 seconds. An easy way to time it is by singing the full happy birthday song, twice.
The same goes for hand sanitizer: use a sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol and rub it into your hands for at least 20 seconds to ensure full coverage.
- When should I wash my hands?
In the context of COVID-19 prevention, you should make sure to sanitize/wash your hands at the following times:
After blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing
After visiting a public space, including public transportation, markets and places of worship
After touching surfaces outside of the home, including money
Before, during and after caring for a sick person
Before and after eating
In general, you should always wash your hands at the following times:
After using the toilet
Before and after eating
After handling garbage
After touching animals and pets
When your hands are visibly dirty
- Do I need to use warm water to wash my hands?
No, you can use any temperature of water to wash your hands. Cold water and warm water are equally effective at killing germs and viruses – as long as you use hand sanitizer/soap!
- Do I need to dry my hands with a towel?
Germs spread more easily from wet skin than from dry skin, so drying your hands completely is an important step. Paper towels or clean cloths are the most effective way to remove germs without spreading them to other surfaces.
- Which is better: washing your hands with soap and water or using hand sanitizer?
In general, both handcleaning with Disinfectant Spray and hand sanitizer, when practiced/used correctly, are highly effective at killing most germs and pathogens.
If your hands look dirty, you should wash them with soap and water. Hand sanitizer is less effective on visibly dirty hands. Hand sanitizer is often more convenient when you are outside of the home, but can be expensive or difficult to find in emergency contexts. Also, alcohol-based hand sanitizer kills the coronavirus, but it does not kill all kinds of bacteria and viruses, for example, the norovirus and rotavirus which cause diarrhea. It can also be toxic if swallowed and it should be stored out of reach of children and used only under adult supervision.
