Health Officials Recommend Sanitizing Cell Phones to Reduce Coronavirus Risk: Here’s How

As the global coronavirus pandemic has developed, Americans have been hearing the warnings about washing our hands for at least 20 seconds and practicing social distancing, but there’s another potential risk factor for passing on an infection: our cell phones.

As the report from CNN Newsroom explained, many people carry their phones with them all day long, frequently touching them or raising them to our faces after touching public facilities like door handles, elevator buttons, or stairway railings.

“Our phones can be hotbeds of bacteria, effectively a petri dish in our pockets,” said CNN’s Hadas Gold.

Gold continued with some tips for sanitizing a cell phone without damaging the expensive device. Apple recently issued updated guidance that iPhones could be cleaned with disinfectant wipes or 70% isopropyl alcohol. Other mobile phone manufacturers have recommended using a “mixture of hand soap and water, and a soft microfiber cloth.”

“What they recommend is you take one of the wipes, wipe down the hard surfaces of your phone while trying to avoid any sort of open ports like the charging port or headphone jack,” said Gold.

Ultraviolet sterilization devices may help sanitize a phone as well, although it has not been determined how effective they are against coronavirus.

Watch the video above, via CNN.