NO, BUT…
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), CDC and UNICEF, temperature is not an important factor against coronavirus when washing your hands, with soap being the key.
You can use any temperature of water to wash your hands. Both cold water and warm water are equally effective at killing germs and viruses, including coronavirus – as long as you wash your hands properly and use soap!
There is however one benefit of washing your hands with warm water – soap tends to dissolve better with it.
Dr Lisa Ackerley, a food safety adviser for the British Hospitality Association, said: “Warm water is good as it helps the soap to lather and it’s the action of washing soap off which helps to get hands clean.
“But the actual water temperature won’t kill bacteria as it can’t be too hot or it would burn.”
CDC: “The temperature of the water does not appear to affect microbe removal; however, warmer water may cause more skin irritation and is more environmentally costly.” (by warmer they mean too warm or hot)
WHO also warns of skin irritation when using hot water to rinse your hands, warning against it.
Belief that washing your hands with hot water is better than with cold water most likely comes from the fact that boiling water obviously kills the virus, however, needless to say, you should never apply boiling water to any part of your body.
So just use warm (but not hot) water when available for that extra benefit of quicker and nicer dissolution of the soap, while fully knowing that still you can safely wash your hands with cold water as well.
Answer confirmed by: WHO, CDC, UNICEF and additional research.
Safety related coronavirus questions:
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Basic coronavirus related questions:
Similar questions: Is it better to wash your hands with warm / hot water rather than not cold? Do we have to wash our hands with warm water instead of cold? Why do we have to wash our hands with warm water? Do I need to use warm water to wash my hands? Is washing hands with warm water better than cold?
