What’s the best way to clean your phone of coronavirus? Alcohol wet wipes, UV sanitisers, soap and water – the pros and cons

The virus that causes Covid-19 can remain on glass, metal and plastic for up to seven days, which is why we should regularly clean our phones

As well as wipes or soap and water, there are devices that claim to get rid of pathogens with UV light – but how effective are they against the coronavirus?

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Wet wipes doused in 70 per cent isopropyl alcohol can be useful to clean phones, but major phone makers such as Apple have previously cautioned against the use of isopropyl alcohol on their devices. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 3:00pm, 14 Apr 2020Updated: 3:41pm, 14 Apr 2020

As Covid-19 continues to take its toll on the world, people are stepping up their personal hygiene practices, such as washing their hands more and wearing face masks. Yet one item often gets neglected during this cleanliness routine: the smartphone.

Our phones are an inextricable part of our lives. We are constantly scrolling on them for social media updates from our friends, the occasional game, or to check for messages or news updates.

And while the average person touches their face a lot – an average of 23 times an hour – it turns out that we touch our smartphones even more. Research from the University of Illinois in the United States shows that we hardly ever put our smartphones down.

The dirty smartphone represents a massive gap in our defences. After setting our phones down to wash our hands, we typically pick the device up again without cleaning it, reintroducing bacteria and viruses to our hands. So, just how dirty is the typical smartphone?

A study by researchers at the University of Hong Kong indicates that the coronavirus can remain on glass surfaces for two days. Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto

According to scientists at the University of Arizona, a smartphone has on average 10 times more bacteria than a toilet seat. A separate study by researchers in Britain found the hands and phones of 16 per cent of participants were contaminated with E coli, an illness-causing bacteria that originates from faecal matter.

A study by researchers at the University of Hong Kong indicates that the coronavirus can remain on glass surfaces for two days, and on stainless steel and plastic for between four and seven days. Given that smartphones are made from glass, metal and plastic parts, not cleaning them can have dire consequences.