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Wear A Mask: A mask may not prevent you from caching any virus, but it will stop others from becoming terribly ill. The Center For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends wearing a face covering in public to prevent the illness from spreading.
Do Not Bring Your Entire Family: David Aronoff the Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University recommends going to the store alone in hopes to prevent overcrowding of aisles and lowering the risk of infection to households.
“ If you have three people living together and all three people go to the store, even if all three people have a low risk of getting infected at an individual level, as a group they’ve tripled their risk essentially.” Aronoff recently wrote in the Medical Journal JAMA.
Clean Carts Handles or Basket Handles: Use Sanitary wipes to wipe handles before using carts or baskets at food markets. Many stores already have wipes available for use but if you have disinfecting wipes, it’s a good idea to carry them with you while in a store.
Use a List to Shop Quickly and Avoid Crowds:
“I think the best strategy is to limit your time in the store as much as possible,” says Amanda J. Deering, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Food and Science at Purdue University on Today. It’s an easy way to limit time in the supermarket by already having an idea of what you need to get and leaving swiftly.
Buy Grocery Foods Online- No Contact Delivery: Ordering groceries is an easy way to maintain social distancing and have your food delivered straight to your door. You can pay a head of time and have a no-contact delivery. Be generous and tip well considering the risk the driver must take in order to do his or her job. This is also a great option for anyone who has health risk or an elderly neighbor.
Wash your hands and Produce: The Center for Disease Control CDC recommends washing your hands for 20 seconds or singing happy birthday twice to help you keep track of time. Also remember to wash fruits and vegetables with water. If you want a deep clean to hard skin produce, use a soft- bristle vegetable brush using warm water.
“Vicky Nguyen NBC investigative and consumer correspondent told NBC’s TODAY Show. “There is some research that says soaking fruits and vegetables in vinegar for 10 minutes will kill some bacteria,” said Nguyen. “There have not been studies to say whether it can kill coronavirus. So, the best advice there is really to use running water and really scrub your fruits and vegetables”