Sanitizing Your Boots to Prevent COVID-19

According to the official John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, here in the United States there have been nearly half a million confirmed cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the new novel coronavirus. 

This represents nearly 30 percent of all known cases of COVID-19 worldwide. How did we get here? No one is completely sure. But one thing is certain: our country's overall slowness to adopt rigorous sanitizing routines is definitely a part of it. 

Whether you are working on the health care frontlines, on a construction site, as an essential business, in the community or at home, you need to know exactly what steps to take when sanitizing boots. Read on to learn the step-by-step method recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

CDC Video Tutorial for Sanitizing Work Boots 

The CDC has released this helpful YouTube video that gives you a visual demonstration for how to sanitize womens or mens work safety boots. 

While this video shows two health care workers using the process, it can be adapted for sanitizing leather boots and steel toe work safety boots as well.

 The process is called "doffing" and requires the following items: 

- A "clean chair" to sit in.

- A clean pair of disposable gloves to wear.

- A fresh pair of disinfectant wipes.

- A trash receptacle to dispose of used wipes and gloves.

10 Step Process for Sanitizing and Disinfecting Work Boots 

Here are the exact steps to take in order for sanitizing womens or mens work safety boots of any kind. 

1. Sit down in a clean chair with feet placed firmly on the ground in front of the chair.
2. Put on a pair of clean disposable gloves for safety.
3. Cross one leg over your knee so that you can easily reach your boot.
4. Pull out a sanitizing disinfectant wipe to use on the first boot.
5. Rub the wipe over the boot, moving from the top to the bottom, around the sides and finally over the entire sole of your boot.
6. Discard the used wipe.
7. Pull out a new sanitizing wipe to use on the second boot.
8. Repeat the same process for your second boot.
9. Discard the used wipe and your gloves.
10. You are now good to go!

Can Your Boots Track Coronavirus Into the House? 

Right now scientists are still studying SARS-CoV-2, the new novel coronavirus, to learn everything they can about how it transmits. 

While Healthline reports that the overall risk of carrying coronavirus into an area on your work boots is probably low, you will notice they don't say "definitely low" or there is "no risk." 

If you touch your boots and then touch your ankle, face or any other area of exposed skin, the risk of transmission is still there. 

Because of this, the current official recommendation is to take extra precautions to remove your work boots and clean and disinfect them before entering your home.