The CDC recommends cleaning and disinfecting “high-touch” surfaces including phones, tables, doorknobs, light switches, tablets, and more.
By RACHEL WOLFPeople wearing protective face masks use a smartphone on a street amid coronavirus (COVID-19) concerns(photo credit: REUTERS/VALENTYN OGIRENKO)
As coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) makes people around the world more conscious of their sanitizing habits, many wonder if they can get the virus from their cellphones.Touching surfaces “is not the primary source of transmission of the virus, but we have to minimize all possible sources,” Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious diseases physician at South Shore Health in New York and contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit, said in an ABC article on Friday. "Just like we recommend washing your hands, we can tell people to clean their phones.""Given how attached we are to our phones and the frequent use throughout the day, we have to be vigilant about cleaning it to minimize the spread of coronavirus," Wildes added.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) agree that SARS-CoV-2 could potentially live on surfaces and cause infection, but it has yet to be proven.However, the CDC does recommend cleaning and disinfecting “high-touch” surfaces including phones, tables, doorknobs, light switches, tablets, and more.Dr. David Cennimo, an infectious disease specialist at Rutgers University, told ABC News, “If you don't let others play with your phone, you will have less risk of having it contaminated. If it does get contaminated, the bigger risk is then putting it to your face.”The CDC says that when cleaning touch screens on smartphones, one should follow the manufacturer’s guidelines, and that if those are not available, one should use “alcohol-based wipes or sprays containing at least 70% alcohol.”
