© Getty Dirty computer keyboard Yes, you should be washing your hands for 20 seconds while singing "happy birthday" or Toto's "Africa". However, if the global health crisis has taught us anything about hygiene so far, it's not that you should be stocking up on toilet roll: it's that you need to be careful what you're touching.
New research from the University of Los Angeles has found while bacteria can only live up to three hours in the air, it can thrive for up to three days on surfaces. If you used a keyboard last thing on Friday which was full of bacteria, that same bacteria would be waiting for you when you got back in the office first thing on Monday.
Of course, this is mostly bacteria you're already familiar with, but the danger is washing your hands and believing you're safe, then using one of your devices and picking up the same bacteria and passing it on to others.
FAQs: Facts about COVID-19 as per World Health Organization (Photos)
Without further ado, here's the five devices harbouring bacteria you never knew about – and what to do about it.
© Provided by T3 (Image credit: Future) 1. Keyboard Your keyboard is the top offender, with up to three times more bacteria than a public toilet seat sitting in the crevices of your keys. That's around 3,000 bacteria per square inch, including gram-positive cocci, found in pneumonia.
© Provided by T3 (Image credit: Future) 2. SmartphoneNext on the hit-list is your constant companion. In 2011, one in six smartphones were found to contain traces of faecal matter living on its surfaces, according to the London School of Hygiene. Our addition to social media, and our hands-on screen time, has exponentially increased since then.
© Provided by T3 (Image credit: Sony) 3. Games controllerWhen was the last time you cleaned your gamepad? We thought so. Any device regularly handled and not sanitised on a regular basis can act as a transmitter of germs, especially if you're playing party games or passing the controllers back and forth between your friends while playing rounds of Madden.
© Provided by T3 (Image credit: Apple) 4. TabletExactly the same as your smartphones. You might spend less time with your tablet computer or iPad, but they tend to be passed around the family or from person to person more often, potentially spreading the risk of pathogens.
© Provided by T3 (Image credit: Future) 5. Remote ControlEver stopped eating, turned the volume up and carried on eating? Imagine doing that for years without cleaning the remote.
How to clean your devicesClean surfaces with a microfibre cloth to get rid of dust, smears and grime, then follow up with antibacterial wipes or antibacterial spray on kitchen paper. For phone screens, use antibacterial materials with less than 70% alcohol content.
Use canned air or moulding putty to remove crumbs, dust and dirt from larger keyboards.
Wash hands thoroughly after using devices in order to prevent carrying and spreading pathogens.
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Follow the government's latest travel advice for people travelling back to the UK from affected areas, including whether to self-isolate. Don't go to the GP or hospital, stay indoors and call NHS 111. In parts of Wales where 111 isn't available, call NHS DIrect on 0845 46 47. In Northern Ireland, call your GP.
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