In the BNR podcast Ask Gommers, Diederik Gommers, IC art and OMT member, answered pressing questions about the coronavirus. Such as:how contagious are mouth caps actually?
In this podcast he answers questions from listeners. One of the questions is:how contagious are mouth caps lying around?
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You see it more and more in the streets:mouth caps lying on the ground. That can of course happen if you take something out of your pocket and your mouth cap falls out without you knowing it. But what is the best thing to do as a passer-by.
Gommers:“I assume that most people simply throw away their mouth caps that they no longer use in the trash, but it can happen that they end up on the street. As a passer-by, I recommend that you do not touch a mask near the mouthpiece. In principle, the coronavirus needs you to be transmitted via droplets of virus that you spread, but various studies have shown that the virus can also survive on other surfaces. In the beginning we thought that the virus could only survive there for a few hours, but now we know from other studies that the virus can sometimes survive for two, three days or even longer.”
“So if you want to clean up a mouth cap lying around and you grab it by the mouthpiece, wash your hands well as soon as possible. If you can't do that right away, make sure you don't touch your face. Or grab it by the elastic. There is less chance that the virus will be present, but still:disinfect your hands as soon as possible.”
Diederik answers many more questions about the coronavirus. So listen to the entire podcast here.
