Kathmandu, Sept. 30: Three major ways to control, prevent, stay safe and avoid the transmission of COVID-19, are social distancing, using masks and washing hands, which are the most effective measures followed by the people around the world against COVID-19
“To control, prevent, and stay safe from COVID-19, proper hand hygiene is critical which means washing hands with soap or using a quality sanitizer as appropriate”, Ramakanta Duwadi, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Water Supply (MoWS), said.
Referring to the illegal sale of low-quality sanitisers, he warned that only a sanitiser that contains ethanol and over 70 per cent alcohol content is effective and urged one and all not to use substandard products. Meanwhile, Duwadi also clarified two important messages with regard to using sanitizers.
“If your hands are not visibly dirty, you can use alcohol-based sanitizers and properly wet the hands and rub for 20-30 seconds or more to be effective” he said.
“However, if your hands look visibly dirty, you should properly wash them with soap and running water for around 40-60 seconds and wipe with single-use towels”, said Duwadi, adding that sanitizer will not work on visibly dirty and contaminated hands.
While using hand sanitiser, the hands must be made wet enough and must rub them properly for the effective results, added Duwadi. In every house, offices, public spaces, shops, schools, buses, and everywhere, access to maintaining proper hand hygiene is a must, he said. Meanwhile, according to UNICEF, during a global pandemic, one of the cheapest, easiest, and most important ways to prevent the spread of a virus is to wash your hands frequently with soap and water.
Experts have time and again urged that properly washing hands for 20 seconds can help slow the spread of coronavirus.
Among them washing hands or hand hygiene is considered as an effective way to mitigate the virus infection. As a respiratory viruses like coronavirus disease spread when mucus or droplets containing the virus get into your body through eyes, nose or throat, they can easily spread from one person to the next via hands.