Hand washing has been an important routine in people’s daily lives, even before the coronavirus outbreak. However, repeated hand-washing can cause rough or dry skin. Most of the people will be experiencing dryness from washing their hands in water and regular use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers. But does using hand cream increase the risk of contamination?

“There’s no problem with using hand cream as long as you have dried your hands thoroughly before applying it,” says Dr. Lindsay Broadbent of the Centre for Infection and Immunity at Queen’s University Belfast. She strongly discouraged using others’, though, or let others use yours. Simple hygiene measures must also be enforced in that you shouldn’t touch the nozzle as bacteria and fungus could survive there. Dr. Stephen Griffin of the University of Leeds supported this stating that should your hands be “painfully chapped,” a shared hand lotion should do the trick provided that you use a fresh sheet of tissue to push the dispenser. A common notation that direct contact with the container was strongly discouraged.

“Your first barrier to any germ is your skin,” says Griffin and therefore suggested that using hand cream was in fact a good idea. He further pointed out that contracting an infection was still very low even if your hands were bleeding. He stated that after all these procedures, washing your hands with water and soap and pairing it with a trusty hand cream should mean no hard given that we have taken all the precautionary and hygienic measures beforehand.