The 21-day nationwide lockdown has forced a lot of people to adapt unusual measures for survival. It means that you need to stay indoors, housemaids have been given leaves and you can’t order food as frequently as you would have otherwise done. In these tough times, some people – especially those living alone – are turning towards packaged food. Food delivery platforms are still taking orders, giving some relief to those who can’t cook.

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But, is it safe to order food? Can you get coronavirus from packaged food? These are some of the questions doing rounds on social media and there is a lot of misinformation being spread about them.

Apparently, yY as the NHS in the UK says "it's very unlikely coronavirus can be spread through things like packages or food" on their website.

The Sun in one of its reports quoted a professor of infectious diseases saying that the risk of transmission through food and packaging is low - and people should simply employ common sense. Stephen Baker, from the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, said viruses - unlike bacteria - do not survive well outside the body.

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He said that even though the risk is not zero, it is "relatively minor".

Baker recommends that fresh fruits and vegetables should be washed normally and you can wipe down the packages with a wet wipe if you're concerned.

"Things that are in packages, I would maintain a degree of common sense with the view that they are unlikely to make anybody sick," he said. While the virus will survive on food as it would do on other surfaces - it then dies off, according to Prof Baker.

The number of coronavirus cases in India and across the globe are on a rise. In India, the number is close to 1500 now with several people losing their lives.