(Dennis Thompson/ HealthDay News) — Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. Don’t grab that door handle. Put the toilet seat lid down before you flush. COVID-19 has prompted a mountain of advice about how to protect yourself against coronavirus infection, and now a trio of studies of infected patients offer very encouraging news on what works.
The bad news first — people infected with the new coronavirus appear to shed it everywhere.
The virus was found all over the hospital rooms of three COVID-19 patients in Singapore, a report published online March 4 in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed.
The virus was found on a host of surfaces, including bed rails, door handles, chairs, light switches, windows, sinks, stethoscopes, air fans and toilets, according to a team led by Sean Wei Xiang Ong, of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, in Singapore.
The good news? All of those surfaces wound up virus-free following routine cleaning with a widely used chlorinated sanitizer, suggesting that coronavirus is no more hearty than the flu or noroviruses, said Dr. Greg Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, in Rochester, Minn. (…)