Think about cleaning your cell phone of germs too

MASON CITY — We’ve been telling you about washing your hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds each time, as well as covering your coughs and sneezes with a tissue or your elbow, but you should also think about making sure you clean your cell phone often.

The owner of CPR Cell Phone Repair in Mason City Phil Biermann says your cell phone catches a lot of things from the air.  They collect anything in their environments when it comes to people coughing, sneezing, all that stuff, are just netting all that stuff in. It collects so much of the microbial viruses and all that stuff.”

Biermann says don’t use water to clean your phone.  “Even though some people have water-resistant phones, there’s still a lot of areas that are susceptible to the damages from any type of actual water or moisture. The other one is some people are spraying on their phone, do not spray on the phone. That again, they’re still certain percentages of moisture in a lot of cleaners and everything that go on there.”

Biermann says you can use an anti-bacterial wipe to carefully clean all parts of your phone.   “Avoid a lot of the open areas like your speakers and charge port and microphone hole areas and all that. If you’re going to use a spray or anything, spray on with a nice soft cloth, don’t douse it too much, and then you can go over it. Don’t overly do it to where it’s just soaking up with moisture and all that, but enough to kind of buff and clean it out and get it nice and clean. And not just the screen, but the backs of the phone and all that stuff too.”

Biermann says it’s not a bad idea to clean your phone multiple times a day.  “With what’s going on right now, to do it a couple of times a day is really good, because you can wash your hands and then you go straight to grabbing your phone, you just completely defeated the purpose of everything. As often as you feel comfortable with, but the more and more moisture you’re putting on the phone, the more chances  for any type of issues you can get from from having moisture on your phone.”

Biermann says besides possibly picking up coronavirus-related germs on your phone, if you take any of your devices into your bathroom, they are likely covered with fecal-related germs.