While the cold and flu season might have started off early and strong, we’ve still very much in the phase of the year where it’s much more likely for people to catch colds and pick up the flu from people in their community. And because no one wants to get sick or see members of their family get sick, it’s vital that we know and continue to practice ways to keep the germs at bay for anyone who spends time away from the house each day.
To help you see how this can be done, here are three ways to protect people from germs when they’re at work or at school, even when you’re not a doctor or nurse by trade.
Keep Your Belongings To Yourself
Although certain germs and viruses can be spread through the air, many others are most often spread through surfaces. When someone is sick and they get those germs on their hands and then touch something, anyone else who touches that item within a certain period of time could potentially get sick by those same germs.
Knowing this, it’s important to be careful with what you share with others or what shared items you use during cold and flu season. Ideally, you should try to keep all of your personal belongings to yourself and not use the personal belongings of anyone else. When you do this, you’re able to keep your germs to yourself and not come in contact with anyone else’s germs either. So, unless you’re using something with an antimicrobial coating, it’s best to avoid sharing during cold and flu season.
Learn The Difference Between Cleaning And Disinfecting
Properly cleaning high-touch surfaces can also work to help you avoid coming in contact with other people’s germs when they are more likely to get you sick. But to do this, you have to know the difference between cleaning and disinfecting something.
In a simplified way, when you clean something, you just move the germs from one place to another. But when you disinfect something, you kill the germs that were on that surface to begin with. And by doing this, you’re not moving those germs to any other surface where they could make you or someone else sick. So, before you use a cleaning or disinfecting product, make sure you know where and how to use it in order for it to be most effective.
Make Hand Sanitizer Convenient
We all know that washing your hands is a great way to keep the germs at bay. But when you’re at work or school, you can’t run to the bathroom to wash your hands every few minutes after you’ve touched something.
To help you fight off germs without having to be constantly washing your hands, it can be helpful to keep hand sanitizer in a convenient place. This way, anyone can kill the germs on their hands at a moment’s notice without having to cause too much of a disruption.
If you want to make sure that you and your family are able to stay as healthy as possible while going to work and school, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you all learn how to fight germs in these public spaces.
