Drivers at risk of getting the gift of Covid from fuel pump handles.

More than 100,000 drivers could be coming into contact with Omicron daily Drivers are being urged to wear hand-protection to avoid getting the gift of Covid from fuel pump handles over the Christmas period.

The call follows research which shows that 5% of all fuel pump handles have Covid-19 present on their surfaces, which equates to at least one contaminated fuel nozzle at every single fuel station in the UK.

With more than 2million motorists refilling their vehicles on a daily basis, this means over 100,000 drivers are handling fuel nozzles contaminated with Covid-19 each day, and that figure could be soaring during this Christmas period as Omicron proliferates.

Oli Yeo, inventor of GripHero, said: “The study undertaken by the Ardabil University of Medical Sciences in Iran took place when SARS-COV-2 was prevalent. “Today, the much more transmissible Omicron variant is dominant and tearing across the UK.

“The good news is that almost all UK fuel stations provide gloves for the health and safety of their customers. “Wearing hand-protection before you pick up the fuel pump handle forms a physical barrier between your hand and whatever the driver in front may have left on that surface. “Given that you’ll be holding a surface that has been tightly held by hundreds of other drivers for up to three minutes, we simply ask that drivers ‘glove-up’ to protect themselves and their loved ones. “It’s the only certain way of stopping the chain of transmission dead in its tracks.”

The 2020 study, which took 100 samples from 25 forecourts, acknowledged that ‘an individual can get COVID-19 by touching a surface that has the virus on it and after that touching their own mouth, nose, or conceivably their eyes.’ “This one simple act could help to slow the rapidity of the spread of Omicron, which can otherwise leap hundreds of miles in a matter of hours and sit secretly on fuel pump handles; a surface which has been proven to be over 11,000 times dirtier than the average toilet seat.”