Could Your Shoes Put You at Risk for Contracting COVID-19?

Health experts have been consistently touting the importance of staying clean as we all continue to deal with COVID-19. You may have already developed some healthy new habits such as following the proper hand washing technique and disinfecting high-touch areas inside your home.
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But what about your shoes?

You use them when you go out, but do you take the time to clean or even just put them away correctly? Is it possible that your shoes could even be the reason why you end up contracting this deadly disease?

Those are some of the questions we’ll be answering throughout this article so please stick around to pick up some valuable information.
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Can COVID-19 Live on Your Shoes? 

We already know that the novel coronavirus can stay on our hands as well as several other types of surfaces, but can they continue to survive if they end up sticking to your shoes?

A study recently published by the CDC reveals that half of the samples taken from the soles of shoes worn by medical workers from a hospital in Wuhan, China tested positive for COVID-19. This led the researchers to conclude that the shoes worn by those medical workers can effectively function as carriers of the virus.

All of that sounds very worrying indeed, but you have to keep context in mind here.

Remember that those medical workers were moving around a hospital housing numerous infected patients. COVID-19 is abundant in that setting, but the places you go to outside probably don’t qualify as such. 
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Is It Possible to Be Infected if COVID-19 Is on Your Shoes? 

The possibility that you could wind up infected because the novel coronavirus was on your shoe cannot be completely ruled out, but it’s still a highly unlikely scenario.

As noted in this GoodHousekeeping article, the virus would somehow have to stick to your shoe all the way home, and you would then have to touch the specific spot where the virus is to get in on your hands, and you would still need to touch your face without washing your hands first in order to get infected.

The point is that getting infected that way would be a long shot, but still, if you want to be completely safe, there are steps you can take. 
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How to Handle Your Shoes after Getting Home 

Speaking to Healthline, Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at the Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City said that you can take off your shoes and clean them before you enter your home if you want to be extra safe.

Just clean your shoes as you normally wouldand then allow them to air dry while outside your home. By not using those shoes inside your home, you can further minimize the possibility of COVID-19 reaching you and your family. 

The reality is that there’s a very small chance that your shoes will be the reason why you are infected by the novel coronavirus. That said, if you can make your home safer by being more diligent when it comes to shoe cleanliness, there’s no harm in that either.