What's The Risk Of Getting COVID-19 From Your Shoes?

When it comes to getting sick with COVID-19, you might be thinking about this, and we have too. Joseph asks:

"Can the virus settle on the floor or ground of businesses, and should we remove our shoes when we return to our homes? What's the risk?"

We asked the experts: Dr. Irfan N. Hafiz, an infectious disease physician and chief medical officer for Northwestern Medicine's northwest region; Katie Cary, vice president of infection prevention for HCA Continental Division; and Dr. Jasmine Marcelin, an infectious disease specialist at Nebraska Medicine.

What's The Risk Of Using A Hand Dryer In A Public Restroom?

In our series "What's the Risk?" experts weigh in on what risks different scenarios pose for transmitting COVID-19.

LEARN MORE

 Their take — contracting COVID-19 from shoes is low risk. 

"The surfaces that are the most problematic or concerning in terms of risk for developing COVID-19 are the ones that you touch frequently with your hands. So doorknobs, banisters, tables, etc. We typically don't touch the bottom of our shoes that often," Dr. Marcelin said. 

"There was a study that talked about that, you know, for health care workers caring for patients with coronavirus, that it could be on their shoe. And there is some testing where shoes tested positive for a coronavirus. However, none of the health care workers were sick," Cary said.

If you have a question about your risk, send us a video to whatstherisk@newsy.com. You can see answers to other questions here.