How To Protect Yourself From Coronavirus When Grocery Shopping?
Reference and material:
Consumerreports.org
Due to the terrifying spread of coronavirus all over the world, centers for disease control and prevention are trying to contain the virus by providing the people with information and tips to protect themselves. Recently they recommended wearing face masks while being in public, to reduce the risk of infection.
As we think of the current situation, many people are afraid to be in public settings, like pharmacies, markets and groceries, where it is difficult to keep a distance from others. Some think of safer solutions, like ordering online or by telephone. They even thought of buying frozen vegetables, food cans and packaged food due to its safe level of sterilization.
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And we all now ask how to protect yourself from coronavirus when grocery shopping?
Actually the following tips are not quite different from what you already know about sanitizing to protect yourself from coronavirus. You may take a few extra steps to limit your exposure to the virus, but others steps are not new.
But before I tell you how to protect yourself from coronavirus when grocery shopping, I should note that :
– Avoiding public places is not the solution, because the virus may reach you within a delivery package, so the best thing to do is teaching yourself the right way of sanitizing and dealing with the pandemic.
– Also there is no current evidence on virus transmission through food packaging.
– According to research and testing, the risk of picking up the infection from food is considerably low. There are no reported cases of infection from food.
– There is no need to worry or use hand disinfectant unless you are sharing space with an infected person, a patient or someone who shows signs of respiratory illness.
Lets know how to protect yourself from coronavirus when grocery shopping
If you are shopping in the market or local groceries:
– Wear a face mask. Centers for disease control and prevention stated that people should wear any protective fabric covering in public settings like markets, groceries and pharmacies.
– Choose times when the markets are less busy. You can google the nearest location to your home to know the times of highest foot traffic.
– Try to wear disposable gloves to avoid touching the items or the fresh produce.
– Carry an alcohol based hand spray with you, and spray/wipe your hands and the shopping cart, if possible. Do it before and after shopping to protect yourself from coronavirus.
– Try to use credit cards or virtual payment systems, to reduce the need for handling and receiving cash and receipts.
– Keep a distance from others. 1 meter or 6 feet.
– When you return home you should wash your hands, sanitize everything as we mentioned above and clean your fresh produce.
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– For cleaning fruits and vegetables, wash them with water, vinegar and baking soda, if possible. There is no need to worry about catching the virus from food, but cleaning will kill germs, remove dirt and reduce the effect of pesticides. There is no need to use alcohol or sanitizers for fruits and vegetables. Washing them as instructed above, is quite enough to protect yourself from coronavirus.
How To Protect Yourself From Coronavirus When Grocery Shopping
If you are ordering online or prepackaged food:
– One of the best techniques is to spray packages with alcohol once you receive them, because they can transfer the virus as it stays on cardboard for 24 hours, and for 3 days on plastic.
– Most companies ask their deliverers to follow the protective measures like sanitizing and wearing masks, but it is not guaranteed that they do this. So avoid the hand-off and direct tipping. Instead, receive the package on your step or somewhere near you and use online tipping service.
– If you are receiving something and intending to put it in your car, don’t let the deliverer touch the car doors, handles or inside. It is better to put the package/bags outside the car, spray well with alcohol, then transfer it to the car and wash your hands.
– It won’t harm to wash or sanitize your hands and the box contents as well.
– Wipe everything with alcohol based disinfectant.
– Wash non-porous containers, like plastic boxes, glass bottles and food cans.
– After disinfecting all items, wipe the tables, counters and other places that your package touched.
– Wash your hands after finishing the task, and even after opening the delivered items.