Biosecurity

'Just touching' Surfaces With Your Hands Won't Give You Coronavirus, UK's Chief Medical Adviser Says

Britain’s Chief Medical Adviser John Witty discussed the spread of coronavirus at parliament on 5 March 2020, and answered questions about what is currently known about the illness. He also explained that people should wash their hands before touching their eyes, nose and face to avoid infection.

Coronavirus illness 2019 (COVID-19) primarily transfers like other respiratory droplet illnesses, and so can't result in infection simply by touching with hands, according to Chris Whitty, the UK's Chief Medical Adviser.

Witty and Jenny Harries, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, spoke to the Health and Social Care parliamentary select committee on 5 March to answer questions from MPs regarding the global epidemic. He sought to distinguish the illness from Ebola which primarily transfers via touch.

The illness "looks like a primarily respiratory droplet infection", he said explaining that means infection results when someone "coughs or sneezes, usually within a couple of meters of someone, and usually for a relatively prolonged contact".