Coronavirus Can Live On Your Phone, Here's How To Clean Your Phone Properly

Coronavirus continues to spread in different parts of the world and the health care providers are instructing people to exercise caution by keeping up with basic hygiene habits.

While focusing on wearing masks, using a hand sanitizer and practising other good hygiene habits, it is also necessary to disinfect personal gadgets such as smartphones, tablets and laptops.

Do you know why? Because your smartphones and other gadgets are the hotbed for bacteria and viruses, which elevates the risk of infections.

According to The Journal of Hospital Infection, human coronaviruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus or endemic human coronaviruses (HcoV) can live on surfaces like glass, plastic or metal for up to nine days [1]. This means that no matter how much you wash your hands if your phone isn't clean you are potentially exposing yourself to these germs.

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So, here's a guideline on how to clean and disinfect your gadgets the right way.

• If your smartphone is water-resistant, use soap and water or a hand sanitizer to clean the phone.
• Use a tissue and lots of hand sanitizer to clean your laptop.
• If your phone isn't water-resistant, wipe the screen with a soft, slightly damp microfibre cloth.
• Use a soft, slightly damp microfibre cloth to clean your laptop and tablet screens.
• If your gadget has any case or covering, clean that too with a damp cloth.

Avoid Doing These Following Things

• Don't wipe your smartphone screen with disinfectant wipes or rubbing alcohol as it can damage your phone screen.
• Avoid touching someone else's phone or laptop and avoid giving your gadgets to other people.
• Don't use household cleaners, solvents and aerosol sprays to clean your gadgets as they may cause discolouration and damage your phone at the same time.
• If your phone case or glass is too dirty don't use it.

To Conclude...

These are some basic tips that will come in handy to protect your gadgets from germs. Start adopting it to keep your gadgets free of germs.