What if COVID-19 is in your home?
If someone in your family is sick with COVID-19, it’s important to take precautions and add a disinfecting step to your cleaning routine. Watch this short video to learn more.
Safeguard yourself and your family.
Caring for your loved one.
Keep your loved one in a separate area or room. If possible, have them use a separate bathroom. All family members, including your sick family member, should wear masks and maintain social distancing of at least 6 feet when in the same room. Be sure to wash your hands often and thoroughly.
Add a disinfecting step.
With a sick loved one at home, you’ll need to disinfectant your surfaces after cleaning them in order to protect other family members. Cleaning reduces the number of disease-causing germs, and disinfecting kills remaining germs.
Clean surfaces in the home with soap and water first, then disinfect those same surfaces. Follow the protective steps below before starting the disinfection process.
After following the steps below to protect yourself and your family, find a safer disinfectant to use in your home.
Before you disinfect, protect yourself and others.
Take these precautions before disinfecting surfaces.
No children or pets - Make sure your children and pets are safely in another room
Properly ventilate - Open a window or turn on an exhaust fan to ventilate the area, especially if using the bleach solution
Protect yourself - Put on your cleaning gloves and wear a mask before beginning the disinfection process
NEVER use disinfectants on food or food preparation areas, such as cutting boards. Learn how to sanitize these instead.
Pregnant or suffering from respiratory illness?
If possible, have another adult in your home tackle the disinfecting. If this isn’t an option, use a disinfectant that contains one of the safer active ingredients.
One of the safest active ingredients is hydrogen peroxide, and there are several disinfecting products on the market that are hydrogen peroxide-based.
AVOID disinfecting products that list ammonia as an active ingredient if you are pregnant or have asthma.
Spread the word. Not the virus.
Use and share these disinfectant resources.
Never use disinfectants on food or food preparation areas like cutting boards. Sanitize cutting boards and other utensils in the dishwasher, or create your own sanitizing paste using ingredients you already have at home.
