Are you supposed to wash your hands before and after you scrach your nose, for example?

If you think you need to wash your hands then wash your hands.

No. Just wash them frequently, particularly if you have been out.

If you are at home and all washed up, and everything in your house is assumed to be covid free then you don’t have to worry. It’s not like every time you touch your face you have to wash your hands again. If you might have covid or some other germ on your hands that can make you sick, then you need to wash your hands before touching your face.

If you are in a public place, assume every surface has germs on it. So, if you touch a door knob or a payment pad at a store, your hand now possibly has covid or flu or a cold, and so you need to wash your hands before touching your face.

If you want to keep others safe, then you can wash your hands before you touch anything other people might touch.

Covid on your hand does not make you sick, covid that touches musous membranes like your eyes, nose, and mouth, that is what makes you sick, so if you move the virus from your hand to a muscous you infect yourself.

When you wash your hands make sure you suds up well, wash top and bottom, inbetween fingers and don’t forget your thumbs.

I have a table where I keep things that might have covid on them. Like mail I just picked up or new pantry items from the store. I let them sit for three days before I put them away. Don’t forget when you come into your house if you tough doorknobs and light switches those now possibly have covid, so you can wipe them of with sanitizing wipes or an alcohol pad, so your surfaces are clean and you don’t have to obsess about what you touch in your house.

Don’t forget to sanitize your car’s door handles after going shopping. I also sanitize my steering wheel after most of my trips. Once I get home, I go straight to the sink and wash my hands. Then I follow the hand washing with the sanitizing of any door knobs that I touched coming into my home. Now they are saying that pumping your own gas is one of the more dangerous things you can do, so I keep hand wipes in my car so I can use the wipe to hold the handle of the hose. When I finish pumping the gas, I toss the wipe into the trash can provided by the station

Don’t forget the handles to turn off and on your water also. If you wash your hands and then touch the water handle you just touched with covid hands, you just reinfected yourself.

I soap them up to keep them germ free, you can use a sanitizing wipe also.

@SEKA I seriously considered buying an electric car a few months ago to not deal with gas pumps so much. I wear a glove or put a plastic bag over my hand and then Purell afterwards.

What @Caravanfan and @janbb said. Be careful, but don’t make yourself nuts.

I think it’s important to do with the pandemic. Or just use hand sanitizer.

I swear I rewrote mucous 3 times! Ugh. Sorry for typos above.

To sum up that long post I wrote, I try to make my house a place that I don’t need to obsess about covid by taking simple steps to “decovid” when I first walk in the door. When I’m at home I like to feel like everything is as normal as possible.

Thank you.

I have to correct myself it’s not “they” who said that, it’s one person who got corrected or didn’t get corrected with: something like: “Literally speaking that’s impossible to do, nor is it desirable, since it would be a waste of resources (water etc., environmentally unfriendly in general), and completely undoable since there arent sinks every block or something.”, not to mention that it would force you to only be thinking about what you are touching.”

I’m always thinking about what I am touching when I am out of the house. I did that to some extent before covid, but now it is a constant.

And is the thinking subconcious, since it’s been a habit a for a long time.

I’m aware, but it is automatic.

The only time it’s uncomfortable is when it is an interaction with someone else. During flu season when someone wants to shake hands if I’m prepared I’m usually quick enough to say, “I don’t shake hands during flu season.” Sometimes I’m caught off guard and I automatically extend my hand to meet theirs. If I shake, then I’m trying to remember not to touch my face until I can wash my hands.

@JLeslie Good. I think a lot of people have stopped shaking hands, lately.

@flo Where I have been living the past 4 years people don’t usually shake hands when they meet, so it has barely been an issue at all.

Most of western countries I guess, not too much handshaking hugging kissing.