(WSIL) -- While wearing masks and gloves are the best forms of protection from COVID-19, are we taking them off safely?
If your masks and gloves are contaminated with COVID-19, you can still spread the virus to others, as well as surfaces.
"So how do you remove your PPEs? I spoke to Bi-County Health Department's Carrie Eldridge about the proper ways to remove your masks and gloves."
"Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer and take your mask off and then wash your hands again," she said.
She gave News 3 a demonstration and showed the technique for taking off gloves.
"Your gloves are on. So you're going to take one hand and you're just peel that glove off and put that glove in one hand. And you're going to take your other and just…then you just throw it away," she said.
Taking off the gloves properly was harder than it looked. News 3 also asked how long could the virus live on our PPEs.
"As far as how long it lives there's been different guidance on whether it's hours, days, what-have-you," she said.
For now Eldridge says continue practicing safe cleaning habits to keep them off our masks and gloves.
"It does live on surfaces, that's why it's important to clean surfaces, objects daily, if not twice a day," she said.
