Covid-19: Handling money while staying safe

Since the study came out, that the novel coronavirus can spread through contaminated surfaces, people have been trying their level best to disinfect every object that comes in to the house. The study suggested that the COVID-19 can stay alive on different surfaces for up to many hours and on some surfaces, up to days. However, one should understand that this experiment was conducted in strict laboratory settings and that in real life, there are many factors that come into play. On top of that, following good hand hygiene routine is very important.

Factors that affect

Factors such as sunlight and humidity have a great role in eradicating the virus and to be honest, when you are out and about you are exposed to both, the virus and the natural killers aka humidity and sunlight. Ultraviolet rays are the main weapon here. One might ask what is the exact effect of sunlight and humidity? Increased temperature and humidity, are both effective in killing the virus. There have not been many instances where a person might have gotten the virus by touching a surface or parcel because such chances are really low.

What do experts do?

Some of the experts that were involved in conducting out the study don’t pay that much attention to disinfecting every other parcel or delivery, themselves. According to one of the researchers, it is more important to wash hands with soap and water then continuously disinfecting groceries.

How to handle currency?

Another issue is handling currency. People believe that they might get the virus by touching contaminated notes. Though this might be a reality somewhere, but chances are very low because in order for one to get infected in this manner, the currency note has to be full of the required viral load which is not the case most of the time. However, if you are concerned then you can simply use hand sanitizer right after handling currency.

Another option would be to practice the use of antibacterial hand wipes. These wipes are really effective at instant disinfection and protection. One more thing that you can do, is to ask for contact less delivery by paying online. During these tough times, make sure that you are dealing with people at a distance and only deal in currency notes if it’s extremely difficult to deal otherwise. Consider your hands as contaminated when you are handling notes and sanitize right after. The virus can stay on the notes for about 2 days, so if it’s not an emergency, you can always leave the currency out for 2 days before using.

Nowadays, modern alternatives claim that their solution can kill the virus. They claim that somehow their ultraviolet rays are a good method of disinfection. While it’s a reality that UV rays kill the virus, it’s also another problem because the same UV rays can prove to be detrimental for human skin and ultimately health.

So these are some of the methods that you can apply while dealing with currency to play safe. Let us know what you think? If you have any more ideas, do let us know.