How to keep your phone clean during COVID-19

 

Before COVID-19, some phone makers treated alcohol like a touchscreen’s kryptonite. Notably, Apple warned that cleaners could erode an iPhone screen’s fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coatings. In March, however, it updated its recommendations to allow 70 percent isopropyl alcohol wipes or Clorox Disinfecting Wipes — but no bleach — on every Apple product.

Here’s how to disinfect your phone:

• Turn off, unplug your phone.
• Use a lint-free cloth or cotton ball. Avoid rougher material, like a paper towel, that can scratch. Even cleaning wipes can be abrasive.
• Apply 70 percent rubbing alcohol to the cloth or cotton ball, not to the screen. Never spray any liquid on your phone.
• Never use bleach.
• Only use soap and water, on a damp cloth, with waterproof smartphones. (Our relaxed friend, above, swears by it.)

To kill germs and virus particles without liquid, try a UV phone sanitizer that uses ultraviolet-C light to kill germs. These sanitizers look like a miniature tanning bed for your phone.

The most likely pathway of microscopic COVID-19 viral particles onto your phone starts with your hands: The average smartphone user touches the phone 2,617 times a day, and up to 5,400 times a day for extreme users, according to a 2016 study by Dscout. Otherwise, a cough, sneeze or a close talker without a mask are major risks.

Make cleaning your phone part of your daily ritual. And consider minimizing your phone’s exposure to risk: If you’re in a store, restaurant or public space you might be touching common surfaces, leave your phone in your pocket. Don’t touch it until you’ve washed your hands. And don’t rest your phone on common surfaces, where it can pick up bacteria and viral particles.

Source: hartfordhealthcare.org