For many of us, the food shop has become a weekly highlight because it means we can head outside for fresh air, if only to walk to the nearest supermarket and back.
Despite safety measures, such as queueing systems and keeping two metres apart, it’s natural to still feel hesitant about whether it’s safe to touch products or surfaces when out and about.
Picking up a can of beans or a packet of pasta (yes, pasta is back) could feel ominous, because someone else might have touched it before you. So, many people are opting for wearing plastic gloves when shopping.
But do plastic gloves really protect you and how should you use them? We find out the answers, so you can shop in peace.
Should you wear plastic gloves when you go outside?
‘For the general public, plastic gloves are not recommended as a way of protecting against Covid-19. Hand hygiene and respiratory hygiene are always prioritised over wearing plastic gloves or face masks,’ says Dr Diana Gall from Doctor-4-U.
‘This type of protective wear is only useful in clinical settings where healthcare professionals are in direct contact with bodily fluids and the virus throughout the day.
‘In a clinical setting, plastic gloves are thrown away after caring for each patient. However, this same strict protocol is not carried out by the general public and so there are risks with wearing plastic gloves while out and about in a public setting.
‘Firstly, wearing plastic gloves may give you a false sense of protection and lead to neglecting hand hygiene. ‘
Dr Gall explains that you should think of the gloves as your skin – in other words, if you touch several surfaces and you have the gloves on and then touch your face, you can still transfer coronavirus.
In fact, it could potentially be riskier than simply practising good hand hygiene.
She adds: ‘If you’re wearing the same pair of gloves for the entire day, going to various shops, touching different surfaces, then you’re putting yourself at more risk of picking up a virus and transferring it to yourself or others.’
So, you’d need to swap out gloves as soon as you touch another surface, which could become very wasteful, costly and still carries a big risk.
If you’re thinking of washing your hands with the gloves on, don’t.
‘You cannot rewash the disposable latex gloves. They are not designed to be washed or reused as they are very thin,’ Dr Giuseppe Aragona, medical adviser at Prescription Doctor, tells us. The thin gloves could also rip.
‘The rubber gloves you wash the dishes with would be able to withstand a soapy water wash and would prevent you coming into contact with the respiratory droplets on your hands,’ she says, although the advice about wearing gloves in public still applies.
Dr Ross Perry, GP and medical director at Cosmedics.co.uk, explains that even if the gloves did protect your hands, you’d still be at risk of contracting coronavirus in other ways.
‘Conditions similar to coronavirus are spread through coughing and sneezing, which produce water or mucus droplets containing the virus,’ he says.
‘These droplets are projected into the air by coughing or sneezing and this causes a spread of the infection when they come into contact with others.
‘Therefore, while gloves can protect your hands from coming into contact with the droplets, they will still remain on the surface of the gloves and last longer if they’re not disposed of or washed every time you leave the house.
‘Again a risk of catching the virus if you’re touching your face with or without gloves, and that goes for touching an ATM, handling food produce etc.
‘The best advice is to frequently wash your hands with soap and water thoroughly and use hand sanitiser that is available at shops and public places.
The gloves really won’t make much difference other than making you feel that you’re slightly more protected.’
And do remember, gloves or no gloves, if you have any symptoms of coronavirus such as a fever or continuous cough, you need to self-isolate for up to 14 days and not go to the shop or anywhere else during the lockdown.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/30/coronavirus-uk-wear-plastic-gloves-go-outside-12476908/?ITO=squid
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