Getting food delivered safely during coronavirus

Many Kenyans, especially those limiting the time they spend in public spaces, are relying on home delivery services to bring them food, medicines to laundry at their doorsteps. But how do you ensure the delivery man does not drop off the food and also coronavirus?

The virus can live on surfaces for three days, according to Prof Rodney Adam, an infectious disease specialist at Aga Khan University Hospital. Research also shows that on cardboards, it lingers on for a day. This is how you receive online orders and protect yourself from getting coronavirus.

a) Minimise physical contact with delivery people

If you are ordering through Jumia Foods, for instance, opt for contactless delivery to avoid people. Use the comments box when you place an order and write “please leave my order on the doorstep.”

“Restaurant staff will now place products directly into the delivery bag, and we ask you as customers to take the products out,” said Jumia Food’s managing director Shreenal Ruparelia.

To avoid the risk of transmission and the delivery person lingering on at your doorstep, Shreenal says you can pay using Jumia Pay, to avoid unnecessary contact.

c) Unwrap the food when still outside or wear gloves when picking it

If you don’t want the food or any other deliveries dropped at your doorstep, pick them up with gloves on. Someone may have sneezed on the packaging material leaving respiratory droplets on it. Unwrap the delivered goods, dispose of the packaging material, together with the gloves, then wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water while singing Happy Birthday twice, or use alcohol-based sanitisers. Avoid using the restaurant food containers, use your plate and cutlery.

d) Wipe off the surfaces where you placed the delivered goods Use bleach (one-part bleach, six parts water) in cleaning the surfaces and the doorknob just in case the delivery person touched it.

e) Ensure safe distancing

Let the delivery person stand a distance of one-metre from you. Most of them have been trained on ways of minimising the risk of spread. “We have acted fast in recent days to make sure that in all parts of the delivery process, from restaurants to delivery riders to customer drop-off, we keep the highest standards of hygiene,” said Shreenal, adding that the company constantly checks the temperature of customer-facing workers.