Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
National
Jessica Sansome

The things you can do to reduce risk of coronavirus transmission in the home

Hands, face and space is the main message from the government and its health advisors when it comes to helping prevent the spread of coronavirus.

It has certainly become a way of life in the last six months to wash your hands after being in the supermarket, in a bar or restaurant.

But with more rules now set to be implemented, is there anything else we can do to help protect ourselves and others at home?

Professor Sally Bloomfield, honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was speaking on Radio 4's Today programme about the things we can do in our homes to help reduce transmission of the virus.

"If we can stop it being transmitted in the home then it won't get transmitted out again and into another home," she said. "It means the family working together."

So, what were her tips?

When it comes to the bathroom, Professor Bloomfield says you should place a bleach spray and a cloth in the toilet area and ask your family, "when you have finished using the toilet will you please disinfect all the surfaces you have just touched - the flush handle, the tap handle and the door handle."

Next up is keeping your home venitallated.

The sunny days during lockdown will have made this easier and it may feel tricker as we head into winter, but Professor Bloomfield says: "It's keeping as much of the doors and the windows open as much as you possibly can but particularly in areas of the home where you are congretaing.

"Remember, maybe 50 per cent of people who are infected don't know they're infected so we've always got to assume that someone coming into the home is infected."

Lastly, it's the laundry. It's something we have probably doing a lot more of recently, especially those who have been back out at work.

But this isn't particularly an area to worry about.

"I think the risks from laundry are relatively low," Professor Bloomfield said.

"But it's part of the household routine to make sure sensitive items, things like household linens and towels, are laundered at a temperature which is sufficient to make them what we call them hygienically clean.

"So that either means 60 degrees or at 40 degrees using what we call an oxygen bleach based product."

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.