With the seemingly sudden onset of COVID-19 and the subsequent barrage of updates and research in the last several months, it can feel overwhelming to wade through the waters of information and know what steps are truly the best to take in terms of infection prevention.
The good news, however, is that the actionable steps that are most relevant in our day-to-day lives are relatively simple.
Thus, here are our top five tips for avoiding the coronavirus, as well as why they are considered important:
1. Wash Your Hands Frequently
Particularly if you have been spending time in public places or using your hands to cover coughs and sneezes, washing your hands frequently helps reduce the possibility that you will either transfer germs to another surface or become infected yourself.
Specifically, the Department of Health recommends washing your hands for a minimum of 20 seconds while thoroughly lathering your fingers, palms, fingernails, wrists, and the back of your hands. If you don’t have soap on hand, however, you can always apply hand sanitizer containing a minimum of 60% alcohol.
2. Avoid Touching Your Face
According to the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), “touching the mucous membranes on your face with your dirty hands allows germs that cause respiratory infections to enter the body.”
Thus, your mouth, nose, and eyes are best left untouched until you have cleaned your hands thoroughly, as mentioned above.
3. Avoid Crowds & Keep Your Distance
In general, it’s best to try to maintain a minimum of six feet worth of distance between you and another person. Additionally, it is important to avoid large crowds whenever it is possible, as social distancing is harder to maintain in group settings.
“Why? When someone coughs, sneezes, or speaks they spray small liquid droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain virus,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, including the COVID-19 virus if the person has the disease.”
4. Increase The Ventilation In Your Home Or Office
As the coronavirus can spread as an airborne contaminant, both the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have confirmed that it is wise to increase the ventilation in a given space with outdoor air as a means of reducing one’s chance of contact with the viral particles.
“However, by itself, increasing ventilation is not enough to protect people from exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19,” the EPA has cautioned. In other words, on top of ventilation, one should also prioritize the aforementioned prevention steps.
5. Clean & Disinfect Regularly
Last but most certainly not least, the CDC has emphasized the importance of regularly cleaning and disinfecting your surroundings — particularly areas and surfaces that see a high volume of contact.
Doorknobs, tables, counters, phones, sinks, and other shared surfaces, specifically, should be cleaned daily. And if they are already dirty, the CDC recommends using soap and warm water to clean them thoroughly before applying an EPA-recommended disinfectant.
Finally, evaluating the efficacy of disinfection efforts and air quality systems can be critical in ensuring the safety of a given space, particularly for businesses and schools preparing to reopen to the public.
The InstaScope uses highly sophisticated technology to detect mold, bacteria, and virus clusters as part of total microbial counting in a given air space. This information is valuable to know on a regular basis because it can help determine ongoing HVAC system performance, air quality circulation, and when/how to minimize exposure risks given how many particles are in the air.
If you are an indoor environmental professional or remediation specialist seeking to provide instant results to your customers, then it’s time to invest in the state-of-the-art InstaScope! To learn more about the InstaScope and how it can enhance your business model, contact DetectionTek today by calling 720-410-7030 or emailing info@instascope.co.
