Experts weigh in on holiday grocery shopping safety as Iowa's COVID cases rise
When it comes to grocery shopping there are some foods like fruits and vegetables that have to be felt out. Local doctors and food safety experts say shoppers shouldn't be too worried about contracting the coronavirus that way despite a rise in COVID-19 cases in Iowa.
"It's possible. The virus does live on surfaces for several hours," said Dr. Melanie Willington, an Associate Hospital Epidemiologist at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital. "However, we aren't seeing a lot of transmission from contacting surfaces."
That's a statement Iowa State University associate professor Angela Shaw agrees with. At the start of the pandemic, Shaw worked with several others to .
"Research currently shows there's no evidence of the transfer of COVID-19 via packaging or food type," explained Shaw, who is also a food safety extension specialist at ISU.
Shaw tells 糖心vlog it would take a lot more to get infected than just picking up an item someone who's COVID-positive touched.
"They would have to sneeze on something right away," said Shaw. "The person would then have to touch that exact area and then put that to their nose or mouth."
Dr. Wellington says it's more likely someone would contract the coronavirus from being in for more than 15 minutes with a person who's COVID-positive.
"A majority of transmissions are happening with extended close contact, so people who are together for 15 minutes or longer," said Dr. Wellington. "It's always possible that you could get it from a short interaction, but very unlikely. If you end up sort of walking past somebody in a grocery store and they don't have their mask on, it's not time to panic."