How and what to clean up in the household after recovering from COVID-19 infection? 

You must not just clean home but also disinfect, understand the difference.&nbsp | &nbspPhoto Credit:&nbspiStock Images

Key Highlights

• Since the COVID-causing virus is highly contagious and causes a range of illness, people are scared.

• Many have no clue how and how much to clean a recovered patient’s home.

• Here are guidelines from the experts on how to clean up the room of a recovered patient.

Like the US expert on contagious diseases, Dr Anthony Fauci has said, the Omicron variant of Covid will somehow infect everyone one day or the other. As the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the country – and the world – more people will become infected, and many of those will exhibit the symptoms of COVID-19. 

Thankfully, the majority of people who come down with the disease have mild to moderate symptoms. Doctors will guide as they have been guiding – on how a person can recuperate and recover at home.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has suggested that someone with symptoms should go into quarantine and use as few rooms as possible, to prevent spreading the virus to others in the household.

Erica Marie Hartmann, an assistant professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University who focuses on indoor microbiology told US News, “I’m really interested in the microbes that we find indoors in general, and in particular how our use of specific chemicals impacts their survival,” she says. 

• Hartman says that viruses are, in many respects, not even alive outside of their hosts. 
• Over time, the virus disintegrates a few hours or a day or so after falling on home objects. 
• The virus cannot replicate or grow on any object, in your home or elsewhere.
• To speed up this disintegration of the virus, approved disinfectant chemicals will also do the trick.
• Given below is a step-by-step guide on how to clean upa house after someone has recovered from COVID-19 in your family.

When someone is ill with COVID-19:

1. If possible, dedicate one bedroom and bathroom for the sick person to use and make sure everyone else uses others. 
2. Request/ensure that the sick person does not share the same space with others or does not touch anything and everything around the house.
3. While the person is sick, have them clean the rooms they use if they are well enough to do so. 
4. If the patient cannot clean the home on his or her own, caregivers should wait as long as possible to clean and disinfect the rooms.
5. Disinfect specifically the objects that the ill person touches or interacts with, Hartmann says. “So, for example, if someone is sick and staying in bed and only getting up to go to the bathroom, pay close attention to the nightstand, the bed linens, the bathroom door handle, the taps, the flush on the toilet,” she says.

The first thing to do after a person has recovered from COVID:

• The easiest way to secure a room after someone in your home has COVID-19 is to close it off for a week, says Colleen McLaughlin, an associate professor of epidemiology and chair of the population health sciences department at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Albany, New York. 
• “If the room is not needed, just close the door for seven days,” she says. The virus will be inactive at that point. “The longer you wait, the safer it is to clean.”
• It is not practically possible for most households to keep a living space locked for so long. In that case, the US CDC’s recommendations for cleaning and disinfection of households with people suspected of having or confirmed to have COVID-19 are given below.

Clean Before Disinfecting: Know the difference
Once the disease runs its course, the room or rooms that the sick person used, along with the objects he or she came in contact with, need to be cleaned and disinfected. The coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, may remain infective from hours up to several days on a variety of surfaces. So, first, clean up and then disinfect.

• Cleaning means removing germs, dirt and impurities from surfaces. It does not kill germs but reduces the number of them on surfaces.
• Disinfecting means using Environmental Protection Agency-registered chemicals to kill germs on surfaces. This is intended after cleaning, and it can further lower the risk of spreading infection.

Cleaning steps to follow:

1. Start every cleaning session with clean gloves and a face mask. 
2. Take any household detergent or soap and water for cleaning before disinfecting. 
3. “Soap and warm water work very well at destabilizing coronavirus,” McLaughlin says.
4. Soap and water destroy the fatty membrane that holds the virus.

Floors, windows, doors:

• Use a sanitiser rub on your gloves before you start disinfecting.
• Once clean, hard surfaces can be disinfected using EPA-approved products such as Lizol or Dettol surface cleaner.
• For a solution of 5% sodium hypochlorite, which is most household bleach, you want to leave it on the surface for 10 minutes before wiping it off.
• Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions, especially on how long you should leave the product on the surface before wiping it off. 
• Hartmann says “Don’t skip the wait step! Disinfection is not instantaneous. 
• If you’re not giving your disinfectant enough time to do its work, you’re not disinfecting.”

Get the carpets, rugs and drapes, washed separately.

• Linens, clothing and other soft items that go in the laundry can still be cleaned that way. 
• Do not shake dirty laundry; that could spread the active coronavirus through the air. 

With electronic devices, such as cellphones, tablets, touch screens, remote controls and keyboards,

1. First, remove visible dirt and other contaminants. 
2. Use alcohol-based wipes or sprays containing at least 70 per cent alcohol to wipe the home office equipment, TV, PC, cell phones.
3. Then follow the manufacturer’s instructions for all cleaning and disinfection products, the CDC advises. 
    

Disclaimer: Tips and suggestions mentioned in the article are for general information purpose only and should not be construed as professional medical advice. Always consult your doctor or a dietician before starting any fitness programme or making any changes to your diet.

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Originally Appeared Here