Rakel Kling, a Medical Health Officer with Northern Health says that wearing gloves can prevent the COVID-19 virus from getting on your hands, but that they are not necessary. (Photo Courtesy: Veronica Beltran, CKPG News)

By Veronica Beltran

glove efficiency against COVID-19

TYH: Can gloves protect you from COVID-19?

May 5, 2020 | 8:30 AM

We’ve covered masks, and now we are talking gloves.

How effective are the blue surgical gloves in protecting you from COVID-19?

We spoke with Northern Health’s Medical Health Officer, Rakel Kling, who says they do offer some sort of protection from the virus but are not absolutely necessary.

“So it really just protects your hands from getting COVID virus on them.”—Rakel Kling, Medical Health Officer, Northern Health

But how you wear them is what counts, “if you do wear gloves, you still want to treat things as if you do have bare hands,” said Kling. “So making sure not to touch too many things, making sure not to touch your face and still, really good hand hygiene,” she added.

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The BC Centre for Disease Control offers tips on how to properly remove gloves, once you are done with them.

How to remove gloves ( Photo Courtesy, BCCDC’s 9 steps to Doff Personal Protective Equipment)

For the first glove you want to pinch your palm and remove from there, the second glove is a bit trickier. With your bare fingers get under the glove at the wrist and proceed to remove it from there. Then toss both gloves out in the garbage.

Before putting gloves on Kling says you should wash your hands, as well as when you take them off.

Changing out your gloves, if they rip, or get soiled is also important if you do decide to wear them.

Most importantly Kling highlights that the most important thing you can do to protect yourself from the virus is to practice proper hand hygiene—washing your hands with soap and warm water for 20-30 seconds.