We’ve done a lot of hand washing these past few months in lockdown, but how long have we really spent doing it?

Following hand washing steps and techniques provided by the NHS to ensure our hands are the cleanest they’ve ever been, we were told 20 seconds is optimum hand washing time to help stop the spread of Coronavirus. 

A study by UK researchers found that washing hands 6-10 times a day makes catching Coronavirus and other infections significantly less likely, while washing more than 10 times doesn’t appear to cut the risk of infection any further.

This means:

Washing hands 6 times a day for 20 seconds each time, over 14 weeks of lockdown = 3.2 hours spent washing our hands in total. 

To put this in perspective, here are a few things you could do in that time:

Travel

Just how far could you travel in 3.2 hours? You could:

• Fly from Newcastle airport to Amsterdam and back
• Take the Eurostar from London to Paris for a day out seeing the sights
• Walk from Chesham station to Chalfont & Latimer station, and back (if you really wanted to)  
• Take a guided tour around the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona (once we’re allowed to travel of course)

Watch a film

Some of the films you could watch in 3.2 hours include:

• Titanic
• The Wolf Of Wall Street
• The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
• The Green Mile
• The Godfather

Or…

You could also:

• Cook a 16lb turkey
• Watch 8 episodes of Friends
• Ride “It’s A Small World” at Disney World 10 times
• Listen to One Direction’s 2013 album ‘Midnight Memories’ 3 times
• Play 2 football games back to back (without half time)

But of course, all this time spent washing hands hasn’t been a waste. 

We always know how washing hands is important, but right now it’s not only helping to keep ourselves safe, but helping protect our families and everyone else we come in contact with.

Continuing this amount of daily hand washing, as well as implementing other cleaning and protective methods, will help us all in the long run when it comes to fighting this virus.