If you’re limiting how much you go out, it’s likely that you’re relying on home deliveries more than ever.
So while you stay in, many items may be entering your home. But do you need to clean them?
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it’s safe to receive packages as the risk of catching the virus from a package that has travelled and been exposed to different conditions and temperatures is low.
The risk of someone infected with the coronavirus contaminating the goods is also low.
A recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that the coronavirus could survive on hard surfaces like plastic and stainless steel for up to 3 days, but it didn’t survive on cardboard for more than 24 hours.
If you’re receiving a lot of deliveries, the best way to protect yourself is by:
- keeping a distance of at least 2 metres (6 feet) from the mail delivery person or courier who is giving you the letter or parcel
- washing your hands after handling the parcel
- throwing away any packaging the item came in
If you think you may have coronavirus, you can use our COVID-19 Symptom Mapper to check your symptoms and compare them with others around the world.
This should give you a better understanding of how the illness is affecting you and will help us to map the spread of the outbreak.
