Over the last year, health experts have learned so much about COVID-19, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have announced that one common prevention measure previously recommended may be doing more harm than good.
Recently, the CDC said disinfecting surfaces isn’t doing much as, indoors, the risk of surface transmission is very low, and outdoors, it’s nearly zero – the sun and other external forces can kill the virus.
Using regular soap is enough to reduce the risk, and if someone positive for Covid-19 has been in the home within the last 24 hours, disinfecting should be considered – at that point, focus on high contact areas such as light switches and doorknobs.
Disinfecting may also give us a false sense of security, unless other prevention measures like wearing masks, physical distancing, and hand hygiene are not being consistently performed.
That’s really the best way as we continue to get through this together – continue to wear a face mask that fits snugly, limit travel, social distance, avoid large crowds, don’t go indoors with people you’re not sheltering with (especially in bars), practice good hand hygiene, get vaccinated when it becomes available to you, to protect your life and the lives of others.
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