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Strengthen your immune system by eating superfoods 2:29
(CNN) - You can spend more hours in the office than at home, but when was the last time you really cleaned up your workspace?
Offices provide hundreds of microscopic hiding places for viruses and bacteria: the cracks on the keyboard, the elevator buttons, the communal handle on the refrigerator.
Although the new coronavirus is transmitted mainly from person to person, touching infected surfaces can also transmit the virus.
But don't report getting sick yet: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have tips on how to properly disinfect workstations to stay healthy and clean your workplace during a pandemic.
Clean up your workplace.
Before starting your shift, use a product approved by the authorities to disinfect your desk, keyboard, computer mouse, work phone and any other object or surface that you or your colleagues touch a lot.
But be sure to disinfect the right way. To work, the surface you disinfect must remain wet for a long period of time, usually 3-5 minutes, and that will require many wipes.
Wash your hands. A lot.
Be prepared to make many trips to the nearest toilet. You should wash your hands after eating, touch the door handles or blow your nose, among many, many other actions. Whenever you can wash your hands, you should, just make sure you wash them properly. Here is the correct way to do it.
Disinfects when soap is not available.
If you can't leave a meeting to wash your hands with soap, hand sanitizers are a good substitute. But it is always better to wash with soap and water after a little disinfectant: the gels will not clean your hands as washing them would.
Avoid handshakes.
The new coronavirus is transmitted mainly between people, therefore it avoids unnecessary physical contact. Rejecting a handshake is no longer rude, it is now recommended. Wave your hand in a friendly way, make a peace sign or show a thumbs up
Clean your smartphone.
What is the value of all that hand washing and disinfection if your phone is dirty? You can use a damp, soapy microfiber cloth to wipe down the screens and back of iPhones and Android phones (although Apple said this week that sanitizing wipes can also be used on iPhones). It simply prevents water from entering any of the ports.
There you go. A little scrubbing goes a long way. But if you want to kill most germs, keep in mind the difference between disinfecting and cleaning: cleaning only removes viruses and bacteria from surfaces, but disinfection removes them.
Offices