What can I do to ensure driving safety during the COVID-19 epidemic?

At this time last year, all of our circle of friends had long been "insufficient holiday balance", "I haven't felt good yet, the year has passed" and "it's hard to get a ticket for the Spring Festival travel rush peak return trip!" Wait for the dynamic screen to refresh. However, this year's situation is a little different. A sudden epidemic directly poured a big pot of cold water on the originally lively Spring Festival holiday. In order to avoid cross-infection of more people and ensure their own safety, everyone had to choose not to go out to visit relatives and friends during the Spring Festival. It is boring to stay at home every day. What's more, I catch fish directly in the fish tank. I believe everyone feels the same way as Bian Xiao. This is the longest Spring Festival holiday in my life.

We all very much hope that the epidemic will end as soon as possible, but the reality is not optimistic, and the inflection point of the epidemic has not appeared. At present, the epidemic in COVID-19 is still spreading. Academician Zhong Nanshan also reminded everyone that the epidemic has reached its peak in the last two weeks, which coincides with the peak of Spring Festival travel rush's return trip. The bus with huge traffic has become a hotbed of virus transmission.

I believe that when I see this, some people will ask, it is understandable that public transportation is huge and unsafe, so are we private car users safe to drive to and from work? Indeed, compared with public transportation, private car space is relatively more private, and colleagues' physical health is better understood, so the environment inside the car will be relatively safe. However, if the driver and passenger enter the car without reasonable disinfection or carry suspected infected patients, the relatively closed space in the car will become extremely dangerous.

Then, let's talk about matters needing attention in car use during the COVID-19 epidemic and how to prevent it.

First, how to ensure the safety of the car environment?

In fact, under normal circumstances, ordinary private cars do not need special disinfection if they are not in areas with particularly serious epidemics. We just need to park the vehicle safely in an open and ventilated place and do a good job of ventilation. However, if the vehicle is parked in a closed place such as a basement, the internal circulation can be turned on for ventilation.

When the driver and passenger return to the vehicle after going to a public place, they must disinfect their hands with disinfectant or disinfectant wipes to avoid bringing the virus into the vehicle. If there are passengers in the same car with unknown health or discomfort symptoms, be sure to open the window for ventilation in time and disinfect the contents and door handles in the car. According to related news, novel coronavirus can be effectively inactivated with ether, 75% ethanol, chlorine-containing disinfectant and chlorine dioxide. Therefore, private car owners can use 84 disinfectant or alcohol spray disinfection. It should be noted that if the interior is wiped with alcohol-containing disinfectant wipes, there may be some corrosion in the interior. Smoking is prohibited in the car after alcohol disinfection!

2. Do I need to wear a mask when driving?

I believe that many people, like me, don't wear masks at ordinary times, especially masks with high breathing resistance, so they will take off their masks in the car to make themselves breathe more smoothly, but this is actually a very dangerous thing.

As mentioned earlier, although the indoor environment of private cars is safer than that of public transportation, the air filter elements of most of our private cars have no particularly good filtering effect on novel coronavirus with a diameter of only 0.06-0.14μ m. In the face of viruses, the best protective measure is still to wear masks (all masks on the market can block the spread of viruses, but the protective effect is slightly different, so if you can't buy the medical protective mask (N95) with the best protective effect, Therefore, under the premise that the epidemic situation has not been effectively controlled, try to wear a mask when driving.

Third, staying indoors is the best protection.

Although driving a private car is one of the safest ways to travel at present, we have to admit that risks still exist. If you have to travel by car, please wear a protective mask, disinfect your hands when getting on and off the bus, and keep your hands clean is always the first line of defense against bacteria and viruses.

As Academician Zhong Nanshan said, staying indoors is the best means of protection. Don't go out unless you have to. Keeping your legs well and staying at home is the greatest support for the staff fighting in the front line of epidemic prevention, and doing daily protection is the greatest contribution to epidemic control!

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.