MADISON, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) — As Wisconsin focuses on face masks, some healthcare workers want to make sure people are not forgetting about the importance of hand-washing.
Masks are, of course, one of the keys to preventing the spread of COVID-19. Physical distancing and good hand hygiene are the other two big priorities to slow the spread.
Brenda Klahn is an Infection Preventionist at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Janesville. She said you may think you’re protected in your mask, but it could be ineffective if you come into contact with coronavirus and your hands aren’t clean.
“You’re touching that mask, you should be washing your hands,” Klahn said. “There can be organisms on that mask, especially with that cloth mask. There's organisms on those either the front of it would could be from other people, the back of it would be your own organisms, but we should be washing our hands after all of those times.”
She recommends washing your hands or using hand sanitizer before and after touching your mask. She also recommends bringing sanitizer on your errands, so you can use it between touching each item.
Klahn said you should be washing your hands whenever possible, especially when you return home after running errands outside the house.
Luckily, the rules of hand-washing haven’t changed in decades.
“The things that we teach our preschoolers to do are exactly what we're supposed to be doing,” Klahn said.
“You get your hands wet, you lather it with soap, you scrub for 20 seconds, and you need to wash all surfaces of your hands,” Klahn said. “Making sure that you're really scrubbing for 20 seconds. In preschoolers, we teach them to sing songs like either Happy Birthday, the ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, two rounds of that. Two verses at that is usually about 20 seconds.”
Klahn said it may be a basic hygiene practice, but we need to be hyper-vigilant about it right now.
Also keep in mind that your reusable cloth masks should be washed after every use. Even washing them on delicate is effective, just be careful with using the dryer with certain cotton fabric.