“the virus can stay in the stool for several months and may spread to others”
I don’t want to gross you all out, but one study had shopping carts tested. They found that 100% of the carts in the study came back positive for stool. So many people don’t wash their hands that every cart handle is assumed to have stool on it.
If this virus can live for months in stool, you need to wipe down the cart handle before you push it around. Put some rubbing alcohol on some wet wipes and use that. Don’t use the anti-bacterial wipes that many grocery stores are putting out. Anti-bacterial wipes don’t kill viruses. You need alcohol for that.
We keep clorox wipes in the car for grocery cart handles. And not just the handle, the seat, both sides and as many metal rung thingies close to all that as we can.
We also pick carts that look like they’ve been in the sun for a long time.
Alcohol does not kill all viruses, either.
During the SARS outbreak, one research spilled a vial of SARS virus inside the biosafety cabinet where he was doing experiments. He saturated the spilled liquid with alcohol, and let it sit for 10 minutes. He then wiped up the liquid, but he was not wearing gloves. He came down with SARS.
Unless a specific chemical has been tested and verified to kill a specific virus, you cannot assume that the virus is dead just because you doused it with that chemical.
90% of the time our grocery doesn’t have the antibacterial wipes. Maybe use hand sanitizer on the handle and the seat since that’s easy to carry in the purse sized bottles. I’ve often thought they should send each cart through a cart wash after each use.