COVID: why you still need to wash your hands

By Fidelma Fitzpatrick, Senior Lecturer, Clinical Microbiology Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Consultant Microbiologist, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland., RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences

Hygiene was a significant part of the health measures to control the coronavirus at the start of the pandemic. But as evidence began to emerge of airborne spread, the focus switched to masks and, more recently, ventilation.

Indeed, for some the focus has switched so sharply from surface transmission to airborne transmission that they now view hygiene measures – such as hand gelling and deep cleaning handrails – as pointless. Derek Thomson, a writer…

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