The coronavirus (COVID-19) has a lot of people on edge. Make sure everyone in the family is following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) simple but powerful steps to keep it, and all, nasty bugs at bay.

Soap and Water Are Your Friends
1. Wash your hands often. Use soap and water and wash for at least 20 seconds (the ABC song sung twice)—especially if hands are visibly dirty. This is especially important to do after using the bathroom; before taking in food; and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing. No soap and water around? Reach for an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, just make sure it contains at least 60 percent alcohol. Send your kids to school with a bottle and tell them to use it, and to wash their hands whenever they have the chance.

2. Keep your hands away from your eyes, nose, and mouth.

3. Stay away from sick people.

4. Use a cleaning spray or wipe to disinfect surfaces that are often touched, such as phones, doorknobs, tables, counters, etc.

5. If you or the kids are sick, stay home.


6. Use a tissue to cover a cough or sneeze, and then make sure to immediately throw it in the trash. Don’t let your kids leave snotty tissues around the house, where the little bundles can spread germs.

Are Facemasks Necessary?
The Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) doesn’t think so—unless you are showing symptoms of COVID-19, which include fever, cough, and shortness of breath. The CDC urges anyone who does develop these symptoms and who has recently traveled to China, Iran, Italy, Japan, or South Korea or has been in contact with someone with COVID-19 to immediately seek medical attention.

For more information, see the CDC’s website: cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html.