We all know that mobile phones have become an extremely important part of our life. Almost everything directly or indirectly depends on or need mobile phone interaction. Whether we are ordering food from Swiggy, doing travel bookings, doing online shopping for groceries and goods, browsing the internet, communicating via social media, watching media contents on Netflix/YouTube or checking work emails, it’s the smartphone that is making our life easier by facilitating not only all of these but also giving us control over our cars, households like TV, AC, refrigerator, lights, and even fans.
That’s how our mobile phone is important to us, it’s not just important but it is something we are interacting with the most. This is why its vulnerability for us during the pandemic outbreak or situation like COVID19 right now. The mobile phones are obviously not something which can be sanitized easily like we wash hands and doors’ handles using liquid sanitizers or hand wash.
The very first thing you need to do is to avoid touching someone else’s phone or to let anyone else touch your phone unless you’re completely sure about the person’s health. If you want to maintain social distancing than it should start with mobile phones. You can not afford to give your phones to the shopkeeper or someone else to check your UPI transaction status. And you should also avoid touching someone else’s phone in such scenarios.
As I have mentioned, we all are interacting with mobile phones the most so social distancing can not be imagined without distancing with phones; If someone is exposed to the COVID19 then phones can be the easiest way for the COVID19 virus to spread to the next human body.
via: GIPHY
One more scenario is, suppose you are going out to a hospital, a medical store, ration store, vegetable vendors etc and your hands got exposed to the COVID19, there is a high chance that you will touch your phone right there to make payments or to call your home just to check if you are missing something in the shopping list and if not these then to play music or click photos; there are truly limitless probabilities of using phones more frequently than anything else. Once you reach home, you will sanitize your hands which you should but are you sensitizing your phone too, if you yes then how or if not then you can try these quick steps to safely sanitize your phone.
The first and a very basic thing about cleaning a mobile phone or any other gadgets is to remove the dust, try to blow out as much dust as possible. Now, to clean your phone or any electronic gadgets you can use a lint-free cloth made up of microfiber. Avoid using any kind of bleach, spray or abrasive with the cloth. Remember the cloth should be clean, it should not have any dust because dust on cleaning cloth or screen may create the micro scratches on the phone’s screen.
If you do not have the cleaning kit then the cleaning cloth provided with glasses works well for mobile phones and gadgets. If you find any lint that might be stuck around the edges and inside open surfaces like charging ports then blow out lint and wipe the surface again with the same dry cloth.
Basic cleaning is not enough when there is a critical threat like COVID19. In such cases, mobile phones should also be disinfected properly. The disinfectant wipes with no additional abrasives can be used to sanitize the smartphones. Apple has suggested on its support page to use the 70% isopropyl alcohol wipe or Clorox Disinfecting Wipes. AT&T has further recommended wringing out disinfectant wipes before using them on a phone.
Disinfecting your mobile phones is so important that the world’s biggest phone manufacturer Samsung says it’s offering a free phone-sanitizing service involving UV light inside the U.S. Samsung stores and service centres. It will expand to other countries in the next few weeks.
You can check online and offline mobile phone and accessory stores for antibacterial screen wipes and some other phone sanitiser for phones and gadgets.
