St. Cecelia Catholic School in Clearwater, Florida, follows state and local guidelines at all times when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our procedures include wearing facial coverings, practicing social distancing, disinfecting surfaces, and using hand sanitizer regularly. Today’s blog from St. Cecelia shows you how to use hand sanitizer properly at our facility.

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When to Use Hand Sanitizer

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommends handwashing with soap and water regularly. 

Always wash your hands:

• After going to the bathroom
• Before touching or eating food,
• After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
• After touching an animal or handling pet-related items
• After touching garbage

When soap and water are not available for washing hands, the agency recommends using alcohol-based hand sanitizer to kill germs on your hands. St. Cecelia Catholic School keeps plenty of hand sanitizer throughout classrooms and common areas for students, faculty, and staff to use. Feel free to send extra hand sanitizer with your child to use, if you wish.

What Hand Sanitizer Works Best

The CDC says to use alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Most commercially available sanitizer contains between 60 and 95 percent alcohol. If you have your child bring his or her own hand sanitizer to St. Cecelia Catholic School, go with a brand of hand sanitizer you trust.

How to Sanitize Hands

The key to hand sanitizer is to follow the instructions on the label for the correct amount of hand sanitizer to use.

• Apply the product to the palm of one hand.
• Rub the product all over the surfaces of both hands.
• Continue to rub until your hands are dry.

You must remember to allow your hands to dry before touching anything else or washing your hands. Doing so may reduce the effectiveness of the hand sanitizer, and it won’t kill as many germs. If your pupil has a question in class, our teachers can help with using hand sanitizer.

Wash Visibly Dirty Hands First

Visibly dirty hands are an issue for hand sanitizer. When your child has visible dirt or grease on their hands, such as when handling food or playing outdoors, the CDC recommends handwashing over sanitizing. 

Teach Younger Children the Dangers

Hand sanitizer is not a liquid meant for people to drink. Young children, such as toddlers, may feel like they want to drink hand sanitizer that has pretty colors, smells nice, or has child-friendly packaging with cartoon characters. Please teach your youngsters that hand sanitizer is not for drinking. Teachers at St. Cecelia Catholic School are trained to watch out for this for our younger students.

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Questions? Contact St. Cecelia Today!

The staff at St. Cecelia does everything it can to keep your child safe at school. Contact St. Cecelia online or call (727) 461-1200 if you have any questions about our protocols for using hand sanitizer.