COVID-19 has spread to countries outside of China. Europe and the United States have begun to have confirmed cases. Experts encourage people to wear masks and to wash their hands diligently to reduce the chance of transmission of the virus.

In fact, our commonly used mobile phone is one of the ways to spread the virus. The British mobile phone insurance company, Insurance2go did a test and found that the mobile phone screen has more bacteria (approximately 3.5 times) higher than the toilet.

The virus can be transmitted through mobile phone

Dr. Yoshio Otani (a specialist in the Japanese Respiratory Society) pointed out that the virus is likely to attach to smooth surfaces, such as mobile phones because it can survive for up to 24 hours. However, it only has 15 minutes of survival time if it lands a rough surface, such as a towel.

Dr. Yoshio Otani added that you may still be infected as long as you touch a mobile phone full of viruses and it does not matter how diligent how you wash your hands.

Ways to prevent it

Therefore, it is highly advisable to use alcohol disinfectant to clean the phone body and screen before washing your hands.

Besides, avoid directly spray on the phone with a high concentration of alcohol because it would cause damage as the alcohol would flow into the phone body. It is safest to spray alcohol disinfectant on a glass cloth. The reason for using glass cloth is that its material will not scratch the screen. It is not recommended to use a normal paper towel because its rough material will scratch the screen.

No matter whether there is a spread of pandemic or not, it is advisable to make cleaning mobile phones as your habit because there are always viruses everywhere.