Does washing your shoes work against the coronavirus?

There is a scene that is repeated at the entrances of urbanizations and buildings in Medellín. It is enough to observe 10 minutes to see how, in a repetitive act, people enter, stand in a box that has a mixture with quaternary ammonium, and then step on a mat to dry the soles of their shoes (to disinfect them). Some, not all, clean their hands with gel, which is also at the entrance, receive mail and go home.

So far everything that can be seen publicly, but behind closed doors they follow other routines. Ángela María Díaz, for example, says that when she enters her house, her clothes are disinfected with a “special” liquid and she also cleans her bag and keys, objects that she then hangs on a coat rack. He puts his shoes aside, puts on some flip-flops, and from there he goes to wash his hands.

Does washing shoes work against the coronavirus?

Until the middle of the year, he always bathed when he got home from the street, then he stopped doing it “when someone who knows explained to me that he didn't need to”.

Very few people had such routines as a habit before the pandemic. “From last year to today, if you compare all of this, many things have changed,” says María Angélica Maya, an epidemiologist and advisor to the Antioquia Health Department.

And which ones do work?