Resolution (New Year’s Definition): A course of action that you have decided on and are determined to complete.

Friends, welcome to 2022: a promising time of new beginnings, a fresh start, and, of course, new resolutions.

As we weather yet another COVID-19 resurgence thanks to the troublesome Omicron variant, we can all agree there is no more important resolution than resolving to stay COVID-19-free if possible. Maintaining our own personal health has never been more important to maintaining the health of our families, neighbors, communities and country.

Here are some easy hand hygiene resolutions we can all make and keep that will also enable us to keep our most important New Year’s Health Resolution: Staying healthy and COVID-free.

Start Every Meal With Clean Hands: Washing your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds or using hand sanitizer if soap and water are not available before preparing, handling or consuming food is the best way to enjoy a safe meal. For every safe meal begins with clean hands.

“For this new year – and beyond – make a renewed commitment to home food safety and hand hygiene to protect your family’s health and the health of your community,” the Partnership for Food Safety Education’s Shawnte Loeri advises. “Good health is always a great goal.”

Wash Your Hands Frequently: Remember, dangerous microbes can live on inert surfaces anywhere from a few minutes to several months (especially work keyboards, light switches, elevator buttons and coffee cups). Wash your hands throughout the day, and especially, after sneezing or coughing multiple times in one space or setting.

Cover Your Mouth When You Cough or Sneeze: We’re not trying to sound like your mom here, but mom is usually right, especially about practicing good personal hygiene, even if we’re not sick. Remember, COVID can start growing and spreading long before any symptoms begin to show. Cover your mouth with your arm, sleeve or crook of your elbow rather than your hands.

Get Vaccinated: The much-needed No. 1 resolution for anyone still unvaccinated who wishes to keep themselves and their family COVID-free. We can’t fight and beat this virus unprotected. It just won’t happen. We simply can’t wish COVID away. The science proves the vaccine is our best chance to avoid the coronavirus and avoid serious illness if we do get ill.

The Advocate (Louisiana) reports unvaccinated people are 14 times more likely to die and eight times more likely to get hospitalized due to COVID compared to a fully vaccinated person.

“Now is the time to get the shots you need so you can enter the New Year with protection,” The Advocate notes.

If not for ourselves, let’s get vaccinated in honor and memory of the confirmed 850,000 and counting fellow Americans we’ve lost to the Pandemic.

Travel Smart: Infectious diseases like COVID love to stowaway in luggage, on clothes, and on hands as we travel, and they don’t have to clear customs or TSA security. Be sure to practice rigorous hand hygiene and COVID prevention practices while traveling, and know and adhere to the COVID health and safety protocols of any area you are traveling to.

For all of us, 2022 is the year we want to give COVID-19 the boot. We can stop it from ruining our year by resolving to practice great health hygiene every second, every minute, every hour and every day of this new promising year.

“It’s more important now than ever … to think about setting resolutions that will help us stay healthy and strong enough to see through the coming year,” Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, stresses.