Block of flats/COVID-19/hangi ng out washing

I don’t know if there’s any guidance but I’d be inclined to wait.

If you can go for a walk I’m sure you can hang out washing!

It’s a communal washing line midgey. Not the same as going for a walk ?

But you are hardly going to be near anyone are you? If someone else is there you would wait.

I’m sure it would be perfectly fine, it’s outdoors, you’ll wear a mask and it’s no like it will be crowded. Wash hands as you normally would.

I don’t see a problem, you wait to get a trolley at the supermarket, as long as you’re hands/face/space.

there is some evidence to show it can remain on textiles isn't there? is that what you mean, if someone coughs on it or in its direction?

I'm sure that if you attend a supermarket ( one of the worst hotspots for catching the virus after a hospital ) you can hang out washing as it's out in the air and an in and out job.

Go with your inclination. You’ll only feel uneasy. Do what makes you feel most relaxed.

It would never occur to me to even think of this. I would have been hanging my washing out on a communal washline through out lockdown without a qualm were I in a block of flats.

The washing itself will have been through a thorough wash in the WM. You can always ramp the washing temperature up to 60 ifyou are worried and wipe the line with a wipe before hanging clothes out

After that, blowing in the fresh air, will kill any remaiinaning virus, unless you have a neighbours and childrenwho wrap themselves in the clothes or blow
their noses on them - and then, yes, you do have a problem, but not necessarily a COVID problm.

Thanks everyone. I’m beginning to think along the lines of it’s a maybe , we will see what tomorrow brings as regards the sunshine.

i'm surprised you still have them.
they've had to get rid of them round here and in town, due to the phantom knicker snatcher.
generally, anything that can be taken, is.
but i see no problem re covid. agree with monica above.

JaneJudge

there is some evidence to show it can remain on textiles isn't there? is that what you mean, if someone coughs on it or in its direction?

If this is true I wouldn't hang it out.

M0nica has got it right with her post! The voice of sense.

Monica??

Why ever not ?
like monica it wouldn’t have entered my head
If you re worried about covid getting in the material you can always wash them again ???sorry
This seems like a total non problem to me

What have you been doing for the past year?

And what has March 8 got to do with washing - it's the date for schools to re-open.

If you iron everything, that should kill off any trace of the virus.

JaneJudge

there is some evidence to show it can remain on textiles isn't there? is that what you mean, if someone coughs on it or in its direction?

By that reasoning I should be stripping my minded children's clothing off as they arrive each morning... ?
The main prevention advice in the many gov.uk documents we've been sent is hand washing. I don't remember clothing being mentioned.

we all wash our clothes and shower as we come after work or going shopping tbh

I was thinking of this

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-56171006

JaneJudge thank you for that link, it's really interesting.

Well I have never washed my clothes after going out or into a supermarket since the beginning. I think it’s overkill despite the link. The fabrics that were contaminated with virus would have had tiny amounts put on them and it is known that in order to be infected a person needs to come into contact with a larger viral load. It’s also known that the virus infects by being breathed in, and going into the lungs. Not by touching a minute amount of virus. I had Covid, I picked it up indirectly from my mother who was infected in hospital. My husband went to her flat to do a small job (we’re in a bubble with her) and he picked it up and I then picked it up from him. Obviously we were in enclosed environments ie our homes. That’s how Covid is spread, not via a bit of cloth.

This is a long article published in Nature www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00251-4. It discusses all the evidence for COVID - and other viruses being transmitted through touch, or on surfaces and the summary is that while the virus may survive on surfaces for some time, the chances of it being in a quantity and a viable condition to cause the disease is very close to zero.

It reviews a range of studies done by a wide range of universities. It reiterates what we have known from the begiining, that the main way of catching it is from it being in the air and that masks and good ventilation are the key to protection.