Friday, March 20, 2020

Should I disinfect my groceries to prevent getting Coronavirus?

These days one of the things most people are concerned about is keeping an adequate food supply at home. Is there a risk of getting Coronavirus from grocery items? In theory if someone sneezes onto a food item and you pick it up and eat it then yes there is a risk...so how does one protect oneself?

According to the article in the link below the most practical way is to rinse objects you may be concerned about with warm water.

Keep in mind that use of disinfectant chemicals on food items is not recommended as this carries risks of it's own...the chemicals are often hazardous in themselves. For example bleach is irritant to the lungs and the last thing you want in this pandemic is a compromised lung.

More information in the link below. 


There's also this article which has answers to a series of questions about grocery shopping. 

UPDATE. The Lancet published this paper about the survival of SARS-CoV-2. Of note is the prolonged survival at a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius which is the temperature of most refrigerators. Hence it is important to clean groceries such as fresh milk cartons before putting them in the fridge. 

UPDATE 2. Whilst going through my Facebook timeline I came across an article from Reader's Digest that is on the subject at hand. Though adding nothing new it is written in a matter of fact style, with lots of common sense that will surely appeal to those wishing to inform themselves without the burden of lots of technicalities. Read it here.

Sunday, March 08, 2020

COVID-19 resources

Here are some useful resources for 
information on COVID-19

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus map
World Health Organisation advisory
World Health Organisation Q&A
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 page
Worldometer Coronavirus live statistics
NHS UK COVID-19 page
Malta Health Ministry COVID-19 page
European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 page