More and more people are taking extra measures to practice good hygiene, including washing their hands more often and also using hand sanitisers.

However, one tweet from an alleged scientist went viral after she claims that hand sanitisers will “do nothing for the Coronavirus” as it is used to kill bacteria and not viruses.

The real truth

Now that mass confusion has ensued, Dr. Amalina Che Bakri has taken the liberty to set the record straight.

This info about COVID-19 has been circulating around on social media. This is wrong advice. Alcohol-based sanitizer that contains 60-95% alcohol is effective to clean your hands. pic.twitter.com/D0fuPDVJtr— Dr. Amalina (@DrAmalinaBakri) March 3, 2020

According to Dr. Amalina, the information in the viral tweet is wrong because alcohol-based sanitisers contain 60-95 per cent alcohol; making it very effective in cleaning your hands.

She agrees that washing your hands for 20 seconds is the way to go, but using hand sanitisers is better than not washing your hands at all.

However, this does not mean that hand sanitisers should not be used to replace hand washing. It should only be used when you can’t wash your hands or don’t have the means to.

The UK-based surgeon also added that hand sanitisers with at least 60 per cent of alcohol content “can kill coronavirus as it has an envelope coating around it that alcohol can attack.”

So, there you have it, folks. Hand sanitisers definitely does the job in combating COVID-19 but washing your hands is always the best solution.