Caregiver Tips

Contributed By: Caregiver Mary

Face masks are the new normal. A simple way to reduce the risk of contaminating your mask is to wash or sanitize your hands before you pick up a mask to put it on.

When taking it off, you want to reduce the risk of transferring the virus to yourself. Do not touch the front of the mask. Consider it contaminated. Be careful not to touch your eyes, nose and mouth when removing a mask. Take hold of the loops or ties and move the mask away from your face. For masks with a pair of ties, untie the bottom one first, then the top one.

As an extra precaution, you can hold the loops/ties with the contaminated side of the mask facing upward. Then bring your hands slowly together and let gravity drop the center of the mask. This puts the contaminated surface on the inside of the fold. Place your used face covering in a closed trash or laundry bin. Then wash or sanitize your hands immediately.