Simple Steps to Make Sure Your Entire Household is Safe During COVID -19

There has been an increasing number of COVID 19 cases in India at the time of publishing this post. Difficult to ascertain that if the gr...

There has been an increasing number of COVID 19 cases in India at the time of publishing this post. Difficult to ascertain that if the growth of infection is peaked but certainly it is not flattening. Every household is subject to COVID 19 infection, the risk is on the higher side, as can be inferred from the recent steps taken by Indian states to increase the level of lockdown or change in protocols during "Unlockdown 1.0". So how can a household take steps to help prepare itself from the possible entry of the pandemic?

Everything That Comes from Outside Need to be Disinfected

Whether you order food parcel, phone, chequebook or any item that comes in the box or a plastic bag must be wiped clean using the disinfectant of your choice. You may use Dettol or Savlon or any other brand of your choice to simply make a solution as per the manufacturer's guideline. The easiest once are those which can be diluted with water and used with empty sprayable bottles which are now available online and nearby grocery/novelty stores. Just spray and wipe, it is going to keep you and your family safe because we may receive a box or package from outside and we put it on sofa or table. We do now habitually wash our hands but don't disinfect package, the surface where such parcel was kept is a possible threat for your household. Follow this process to clean everything that enters your house:

1. Create a "Cleaning Station" by demarcating the Clean Surface Area and the Dirty Surface Area on a table. Divide the table in half by sticking a medical tape in the middle. You can make such a cleaning station on credenza or table near the entry of your house or outside if your building management allows putting furniture outside. Now you have a cleaning station ready. All items that come from outside must be placed on the Dirty Surface Area first as a rule.

2. Secondly, keep the disinfectant bottle spray and a cloth to wipe on the cleaning station all the time so that you don't have to go insider the house to the kitchen to finding a bottle. You may keep it just next to the door inside your apartment.

3. Hold the parcel, spray the disinfectant and wipe with a cloth. Place it on the Clean Surface Area.

4. Now wash your hands come back and now you are free to take parcel inside.

Shampoo When you Enter Back to Your House

We often convince ourselves that I just went for a job below in the building garden or just went down to pick up the parcel and don't need a bath. If there are four adults and each one goes down and thinks this way, all are going to risk 4 times a day possible intrusion of COVID 19 to your house.

Not only taking bath right after coming back from your house is important but it is also, it is equally important to shampoo your hair.

This means you will need to plan your visit outside your flat. E.g. pick up all parcels when you return from work or change your bathing time from morning to evening i.e. post picking up parcels in the evening.

Avoid ordering food from outside because if you go down to pick it up at the gate or lobby, remember the shampoo rule. You will lose hair very fast if you order too many meals a day!

Clean Your Spectacles

Now, you are cleaning your packages and then taking them inside the house. You are now taking a full bath including shampooing hair when you return from outside but you are forgetting to clean your spectacles. People who wear spectacles for them they are non-biological body part so we may not notice that it has potential to carry virus if we have touched the contaminated surface and adjusted spectacles or left spectacles on the table while working in the office

Clean your cellphone and earplugs

Make it a rule to clean your phone and earplugs wired or Bluetooth ones using sanitisers dipped cloth or spray bottles (spray bottles that is ethanol based which sprays like a deodorant, now available in medical stores). Don't use too much or too little. Personally, damaging phone or earplug do outweigh getting an infection for self and other family members in the household in our view. So it is recommended that you do unless your phone is like a family member! Than definitely clean your phone.

Clean your Vehicle Key

If you use your vehicle you are like to use keep your keys on places or surfaces that may not necessarily clean. It can be a table, store cash counter or using it to press floor button in lift. Also remember, you did sanitise your hand but you did hold your key coming out of your car. Do sanitise it.

Wash Vegetables and Fruits

Though there are no scientific research or data to prove that vegetables and fruits can cause COVID 19, but the way they are handled from farm to agricultural market and then to local vegetable markets of the city, you wish you never see this unhygienic process as vegetables are left open for hours on road, pavements and cleaned with water that is not okay to drink. You get the picture. And your local vendor or transport company that handles it, risk of infection cannot be overruled.

You may simply use our granny's advice to roughly clean fruits and vegetables before cooking than she was way ahead of time FDA norms. In the times of COVID 19 pandemic, if you would like to be more safe because FDA says washing fruits and vegetables is good enough to clean with some amount of scrubbing for hard vegetables or fruits like potatoes and melons, then you may use vinegar if you are comfortable. Avoid using bleach or soap or detergent based chemicals. You may choose some of the vegetable wash options available now in the market, will certainly help do more than just washing but do look for certification on the back of the vegetable wash liquid.

Laptops and Tab Cleaning

You spend a lot of time on the phone but at the same time we carry laptops and tabs with us everywhere including office and we place it on surfaces outside of the house. This means a possible risk of infection if not your laptop and tabs are not cleaned once you are home as you use not only fingertips for touch screen but also rest our half of hands when using it. So it becomes imperative that you clean your laptop thoroughly even from the bottom with sanitiser and cloth. And your charger if you carry outside of your house to use.

Use Mobile Payment

Wherever possible use the mobile payment network of your bank, BHIM-UPI, Paytm, Google Pay or another mobile payment platform of your choice. Taking less cash from someone is always a good idea though are not scientific data to support the theory that virus can transmit through currency notes and coins, but at least it reduces additional touchpoints.

And if you get coins back do sanitise them on your cleaning station before letting them in. If you use a Credit Card gentle spray of sanitisers is well worth it because you have used a pin on the machine and used the same hand to take the card back.

The above guidelines are simple and easy to do it on a daily basis based on the author's personal experience. Please read product usage guidelines for any adverse effect on the body or materials.