National Handwashing Awareness Week is celebrated during the first week of December, but these hygiene tips will help to keep your workforce healthy as they travel for the holidays and throughout the winter.
WHY IS HANDWASHING SO IMPORTANT?
Clean hands help to prevent sickness. Basic public health measures like handwashing would help to prevent the spread of infection — and not just COVID-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), keeping hands clean can prevent 1 in 3 diarrheal illnesses and 1 in 5 respiratory infections, such as a cold or the flu.
PROPER HANDWASHING TECHNIQUE
If you’ve already taken down the “proper handwashing” technique posters from your office bathroom posted at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (or if you’re still working remotely), the tips below can act as a refresher:
- Experts recommend washing your hands with soap and clean water for at least 20 seconds
- Lather and clean the back of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails
- Remember these five easy steps: Wet, lather, scrub, rinse, and dry
More of a visual learner? No worries — the CDC has a video you can reference as well.
WHEN YOU NEED TO WASH YOUR HANDS
It’s especially important to properly wash your hands after you’ve been in a public place, or after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.
You should also wash your hands:
- Before eating or preparing food
- Before touching your face
- After using the restroom
- After handling your mask
- After changing a diaper
- After caring for someone who is sick
- After touching animals or pets
ADDITIONAL COLD-WEATHER HYGIENE TIPS
Respiratory illnesses spread more easily in the colder months, so it will take more than proper handwashing to guard against potential illness. Here are some easy-to-implement tips that will help keep your employees safe during cold and flu season:
- Keep your hands moisturized: dry, cracked hands allow more germs to break the number one virus barrier — our skin.
- Maintain distance: By now, we’re all familiar with the rules of social distancing. Keeping six feet of distance between yourself and others can help limit the spread of disease.
- Be flexible in your work-from-home policies: Let your employees know it’s okay to stay home when they’re sick — it can prevent an office outbreak of illness.
- Don’t touch your face: Refraining from touching your eyes, mouth, and nose can help keep germs at bay.
- Cover your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing: Viruses can spread via droplets made when we talk, sneeze, or cough. Use a tissue to cover your nose and mouth when possible. On a crowded subway or plane? Cough into your elbow, not your hands.
- Continue to wear a mask when indoors or crowded outdoor areas: As we now know, face coverings play a major role in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses.
- Disinfect regularly used spaces: Think about the surfaces you touch regularly at home and at work, then make an extra effort to disinfect them.
- Practice yearlong health habits: Getting enough sleep, hydrating properly, eating a balanced diet, managing stress, and getting an appropriate amount of physical exercise will help maintain your long-term health and help you to bounce back from a bout of illness more quickly.
This blog is intended to be informational in nature. The information and other content provided in this blog, or in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment.
If you have any questions or concerns, please talk to your Care Team or other healthcare provider. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this blog or in any linked materials.
