Welcome back! I hope you spent your spring breaks similarly to how I spent mine: mostly inside, but with my mask on when I went out, because there’s still a pandemic going on.
The CDC recently shared encouraging information: unless someone in your household is sick, cleaning your home with regular household cleaners is enough to remove the virus that causes COVID-19. This may come as a surprise to those of you that have been scrubbing your home and everything you bring into it for the past year, but it’s very consistent with available information about the virus. Read on for an explanation.
It’s been clear for quite some time that like many other viruses that cause infections of the lungs and airways, the virus that causes COVID-19 is spread primarily through close contact with sick people and airborne droplets containing the virus. Spread by touching contaminated surfaces would require someone sick with COVID-19 to have recently coughed or sneezed on the surface and another person to touch the same surface in the same location soon afterwards and then touch their own face. While this can occur from time to time with high-touch public surfaces such as doorknobs or when shaking hands, it’s unlikely in a private home without anyone sick present.
Several recent studies have found that the risk of catching COVID-19 from touching a public surface ranged from 5 in 10,000 times touching public surfaces to less than 1 in 1 million. Keep in mind that these studies looked at public surfaces that had a greater likelihood of being touched by people sick with COVID-19 than household surfaces.
Furthermore, the CDC reviewed studies of household cleaning which found that simple cleaning can remove 90 to 99.9% of germs found on surfaces, and that ingredients in commonly available household cleaners break up the virus that causes COVID-19.
Keep on regularly washing your hands with soap and water, and use hand sanitizer when running water is not available, because hands are the very definition of “high touch” surfaces. If someone in your household is sick or a sick person visits your home, then carefully disinfect the bathroom and all common areas. But if you and the members of your household are healthy, then regular cleaning will suffice.
Stay safe and healthy (and keep wearing your masks!)
🧼 Dr. B