The UK Government and the NHS have launched a hard-hitting advertising campaign urging the public to wash their hands to stop the coronavirus.
Ominous, dark images of stains on a door handle under ultraviolet light warn people the virus can survive on some surfaces for hours, remaining contagious.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his ministers and officials are hammering home the message that hand-washing is the best thing people can do to protect themselves.
People should wash their hands for 20 seconds at a time with hot water and soap, making sure they clean every side of their hands and fingers.
Chief medical officer for the Government, Professor Chris Whitty, said people can catch the illness by touching contaminated surfaces and then touching their face.
And the coronavirus may stay contagious on hard metal or plastic surfaces like door handles or rails on buses or trains for as long as three days, he added.
Some scientists have even suggested the virus may be more likely to spread on the hands than it is through the air.
Government adverts urge people to wash their hands with a warning that the coronavirus can remain infectious on hard surfaces for hours after a patient has touched it
The World Health Organisation’s hand-washing method has six distinct steps (two to seven) which involve thoroughly washing different parts of the hands
Speaking at a meeting with ministers in Parliament this morning, Professor Whitty said the virus would ‘largely gone by 48 hours and almost completely gone by 72 hours on a hard surface’.
He clarified that the virus spreads when somebody who already has it coughs or sneezes onto their hand, then touches something or someone.
Anyone who touches something the patient has contaminated is at risk of catching the virus if they then touch their face, he said.
The virus can enter the body through the eyes, nose and mouth, but not through the skin, Professor Whitty explained.
The Government’s new advertising drive is designed to change people’s attitudes to hygiene amid fears the killer infection could become widespread in Britain.
Health chiefs decided to use the door handle picture after tests showed 96 per cent of people remembered the poster because of the disgust factor.
In comparison, only 85 per cent could recall a poster that simply told people to wash their hands, The Times reported.
A Government source told the newspaper: ‘Just information works on a cognitive level. But disgust works on an emotional level.’
Professor Whitty said the risk of touching a contaminated surface declines as time passes, but there could still be a danger for days after an infected patient left their mark
Officials have given detailed hand-washing instructions and say people should do it every time they leave the house or arrive home; before and after eating or preparing food; when they go to the toilet; after they cough or sneeze; and after they touch surfaces in public places
The UK Government said more people will definitely catch the coronavirus and some people are expected to die from it
At least 90 people in the UK are confirmed to have caught the coronavirus infection and the number is expected to rise today.
Professor Whitty admitted in a meeting with Government ministers this morning that the country is now trying to delay an epidemic rather than prevent one, effectively acknowledging attempts to stop the virus spreading within Britain had failed.
He said there was a ‘slim to zero’ chance that the global spread of the virus could be stopped now.
The virus, which causes an illness called COVID-19, is spread through droplets which come out of people’s lungs.
These may be coughed into the air and then inhaled, or transferred into the eyes, nose or mouth after getting onto someone’s hands.
Because of this, keeping hands clean and coughing or sneezing into tissues is vital to prevent the spread of the virus.
One scientist, Professor Wang Lin Fa, from Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, said transmission through the hands is probably more common than through the air.
He told the Straits Times: ‘Everybody’s wearing a mask but they are not doing anything to protect their hands.’
He added: ‘The lifts and the public toilets, these are the places where I would be very, very careful about touching any surfaces to not risk a coronavirus infection.’