A recent study claims that new Coronavirus 2019-nCoV also known as COVID-19 can stay on any surface for almost a week. According to United States Centre of Disease Control and Prevention it is not clear that a person can catch the virus by touching a surface that contains a virus and then touching their body organs such as mouth, eyes or nose.
Life of Coronavirus on a Surface
Due to less information about the COVID-19, the researchers are looking for similar Coronaviruses, SARS and MERS to extract information. While exploring the studies, it is found that human viruses can remain on surface as potential pathogens for up to 9 days. This is reported as an upper limit but on an average scale, the researchers say that the viruses belonging to the same family can stay for 4 to 5 days on various surfaces such as glass, plastic, aluminum and wood. However, the ones infecting the animals can stay for 28 days on a surface.
Several factors contribute to the stay of virus on the surface. Low temperature and high humidity increases the life span of the virus. To reduce the spread of Coronavirus, the authors suggest that the hospitals must regularly disinfect the surfaces with several disinfectants such as ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and hypochlorite. It is also reported that WHO recommendations are greatly effective against the virus.
It still remains unresolved that whether the virus can be transmitted from the surface or not as COVID-19 is different from other viruses of the family. The MERS does not transfer that quickly whereas, the SARS rapidly spreads through sneezing or cough. It is believed that washing your hands regularly after sometime and properly disinfecting the surfaces can reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19 virus.
