There are plenty of instructions on how to ensure you wash your hands for the requisite period of time, the right hand sanitiser to use, and how to avoid contact with surfaces where coronavirus can linger. However, it’s highly likely that the first thing people are doing is picking up their phone, and it is common knowledge that phones are gross. So should you be worried about contracting the virus through your phone?
Data collected during SARS-coronavirus outbreak, which is related to the current COVID-19, stated that the virus can live on a glass slide, similar to phone screens, for 96 hours. But given that phones are, at this point, an extension of our hand, it doesn’t need to be obsessively cleaned, say experts. “We don’t need to be obsessively washing our phones right now. If people are coming into contact with coronavirus patients, then, yes. Wash your phone all the time. Not because there is evidence that it will transmit via a phone but because there is no evidence that it won’t,” Emma Hayhurst, a microbiologist at the University of South Wales, told the Wall Street Journal.
Dr Sankar Swaminathan, Infectious Diseases Division chief at the University of Utah School of Medicine, told Wirecutter, “Unless you hand your phone to someone else, that’s probably the least likely thing to get contaminated by someone else.”
However, if you do want to clean and disinfect your phone, this is how you should go about it:
> Make sure your phone is unplugged, and the case is removed.
>Wet a microfiber cloth and use mild soap (do not apply soap directly to your screen, mix it in water) to wipe down your phone, and then clean with a clean cloth.
> Whatever cleaner you use, regardless of whether your phone is waterproof – make sure you don’t get it in any of the openings, as that could damage your phone.
> Do not dip or dunk your phone in any cleaner.
> Do not use bleach on your phone.
> Avoid using tissue paper as it can damage phone screen.
> Do not use any kind of spray, as moisture can enter the phone’s openings.
> Phone companies have told users not to use chemicals, and to only clean their phone with a microfiber cloth.
> Apple recently updated their support page to recommend that iPhone users can use a 70% isopropyl alcohol wipe to clean their phone (In India, antiseptic clean wipes may meet this criterion). More on how to clean your Apple devices here.
> Google also recommends that Pixel users use ordinary household soap or cleaning wipes to clean their devices.
> Samsung is reported to offer phone cleaning services (with UV-C light) for owners of Galaxy phones, and is expected to expand this service to India soon.