How does the coronavirus enter your body?
The coronavirus enters your body through your eyes, mouth, or nose. If it just gets on your skin, it cannot get inside you and infect you unless you then touch your eyes, mouth, or nose.
What other precautions can you take besides wearing a mask and social distancing?
You can also…
- Wash your hands often
- Avoid touching your eyes, mouth, nose, or just face in general with unwashed hands
- Avoid close contact with people who have been sick
- Cover mouth and nose with a tissue when you sneeze, then throw away the tissue
- Clean and disinfect surfaces so you don’t touch them and then accidentally touch your face
Should I change my clothes or take a shower after going out?
Experts say that it isn’t necessary to change your clothes or take a shower after going out. Studies show that some small viral particles could float in the air for about half an hour, but they don’t swarm like gnats and are unlikely to collide with your clothes. Unless the particles are big enough to go against the airflow, like if someone sneezes or coughs on you, they probably wouldn’t hit your clothes. Same thing goes for your body and hair.
Should I disinfect surfaces?
The virus can survive, under ideal conditions, up to three days on hard metal surfaces and plastic and up to 24 hours on cardboard. While the study didn’t cover fabric, the absorbent, natural fibers in the cardboard appeared to cause the virus to dry up more quickly than it does on hard surfaces. The fibers in fabric would be likely to produce a similar effect. While there aren’t any documented cases of someone getting sick from opening a package or reading a newspaper, you could still take precautions. You can wash your hands after dealing with a package, or let the mail and packages sit for 24 hours before handling them.