Prepare Your Home for the Coronavirus

By Lorelei Yang, Countable News

Many Americans are wondering how they can ensure that their homes are ready for the coronavirus' potential spread to their communities.

A few useful tips can help you make sure that your home is prepared.

Use cleaning supplies to sanitize your home

• A clean, well-sanitized environment is one of the best possible defenses against illness. Although it still isn’t known how long the virus that causes COVID-19 can survive on surfaces, our knowledge of other coronaviruses tells us that most household cleansers, such as bleach wipes or alcohol, can kill it. 
• While there's no need to buy specialized cleansers, it's important to ensure that you have the appropriate cleaning supplies at home—and, more importantly still, that you use them.
• If COVID-19 starts circulating in your community or if someone’s sick in your household, plan on disinfecting surfaces that get touched frequently (such as kitchen counters and bathroom faucets) several times a day.
• Dr. Trish Perl, chief of the infectious disease division at UT Southwestern Medical Center, says that this practice can significantly decrease the amount of virus found on hard surfaces.

Stock up on a two-week supply of food and medications

• If it’s financially (and storage-space) feasible, it’s ideal to have at least a two-week’s supply of food, water, and necessary medications on hand at all times.
• Pantry staples, shelf-stable foods, and dried goods are good choices for your food stash. If you’re heading to the grocery store, Epicurious has a useful guide to help ensure that you’re stocking your kitchen intelligently.

In case of sickness, break open soup

• Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a pediatrician with Columbia University Medical Center, suggests a supply of go-to sickbed foods, such as chicken vegetable broth and crackers.
• She also suggests maintaining a stock of hydrating drinks like Gatorade and Pedialyte so you can ride the illness out at home if necessary.

Consider working from home

• Working from home may be worth considering if COVID-19 is spreading in your immediate area. This is especially important if you fall ill, in which case you should definitely work from home to reduce your likelihood of infecting co-workers and commuters.

Wash your hands frequently and practice good coughing and sneezing etiquette

• Like the common cold and flu, the coronavirus spreads from person to person through coughing and sneezing, both of which spread virus-laden particles into the air.
• With this in mind, frequent hand washing and ensuring that your coughs and sneezes don’t spread virus particles into the air are important means of keeping others safe if you fall ill.