Tips for Disinfecting your Car during Coronavirus Pandemic

This virus is known for spreading from one person to another either from coming into direct contact with an individual who is infected or from coming in contact with the respiratory droplets.

Health organizations such as the WHO (World Health Organization) and Centre for Disease Control have been talking about social distancing and regular hygiene like cleaning the touched surface regularly. Although it is easy to achieve this in an office or house, it’s quite difficult to do this in a car. The following tips will help you in taking the much-needed precautions for preventing the spread of the virus. 

Deep Cleaning the Car

In case you’ll be using the car regularly for the coming few weeks, you might wish to think about cleaning the car interior properly. This handy guide on cleaning the interior of the car will help you throughout the process for making sure you’ve got a clear base for preparing the vehicle for proper sanitization.

This thing has 2 positive effects. The deep cleaning will clean a good amount of junk and residue, which has accumulated in your car and inturn, will refresh its interiors. This deep cleaning will also remove the virus residues, which might have been present on the surfaces inside the interiors of your car. 

Sanitizing the Surfaces

After you have cleaned the car’s interior properly, the next thing to do is sanitizing it for making it safe for you and the passengers who will ride in it. Since the space inside a car is confined, if not taken care of properly, it becomes easy for a virus such as COVID-19 to spread amongst the occupants. This virus is known for remaining active for at least two or three days on hard surfaces such as steel and plastic.

The government’s recommendation for disinfecting and cleaning your houses can apply to the vehicles too. While disinfecting the surfaces, make use of a surface disinfectant with isopropyl alcohol for ensuring that the virus is removed thoroughly. Listed below are the most-touched surfaces, which must be disinfected on high priority.

• Window controls and door handle: Both outdoor and indoor door handles have to be cleaned & disinfected properly because these are the surfaces that are used by the occupants directly.
• Gearstick and steering wheel: While the gear stick and steering wheel are surfaces, which are touched by the driver only, it still has to be disinfected for preventing the virus residues from remaining upon these surfaces. You can use surface disinfectant for disinfecting the gear stick, steering wheel, and the buttons on it.
• Audio system, touchscreen, and dashboard: The infotainment system and the dashboard are amongst the most-touched surfaces within a car. Make sure that these areas are cleaned properly with a combination of surface disinfectant and interior cleaner. 

Do not ignore the Grey Areas

The headrest, headliner, and the glass of the window are some low-contact areas in the car; however, they must also be cleaned once in some time. Other than this, one most important thing to clean that a lot of people tend to skip is your car keys. It takes hardly five minutes to clean all this. 

Cleaning the Cabin Properly

Once in some time, it is important to make use of a portable vacuum cleaner for cleaning the cabin thoroughly. If you do not have a vacuum cleaner, you must scrub & wash the floor mats and the carpet. Use a disinfectant liquid on the handbrake and gear lever and pedals. Also, wipe the seats with a cloth, which is coated in the disinfectant liquid. If in case the disinfectant liquid is not available with you, you can use soapy water as an alternative. All of this cleaning will take around half an hour. 

HVAC unit Disinfection

HVAC unit or heating, ventilation, & air conditioning unit helps in circulating the air inside the car cabin. It may be carrying germs. During the time of the coronavirus outbreak, it’s important to disinfect this system. It sounds tough, but it can be one at home easily. First of all, clean the vents of the AC by spraying a specific cleaner like 3M or any of the ammonia-based solutions. Secondly, remove & clean the filter of the cabin, which is generally situated behind glove compartment in the car. This disinfection will take hardly around 15 minutes. 

Always Carry the Essentials with you

Although you may be able to keep your vehicle sanitized and disinfected, there are some of the precautions that you can take for keeping the occupants in the car safe. Make a kit for your car specifically, which must include the following things.

• Face masks
• Hand sanitizers
• Water bottles
• Medication and first aid

This kit provides the tools for taking effective precautions against coronavirus while in your car. While all of this is important, there is one thing that has been essential before the pandemic and still remains as important- car insurance. Insure your car well to protect it and yourself from unexpected events on the road. Stay safe!