(Two times the "Happy Birthday" song, or sing "Baby Shark" - you'll get midway through Daddy Shark).Īnd be thorough. Lather up with soap and scrub for 20 seconds. So do it, already! Especially after you've been out in public, touching a lot of surfaces. You can make a DIY cleaning spray by mixing 4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water, according to the CDC. David Warren, an infectious disease specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Skip the baby wipesĪnd given that wipes are hard to come by at many stores at the moment, you can instead buy an EPA-registered disinfecting spray, such as one on this list from the Center for Biocide Chemistries, recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by Dr. Wipe right: Use ammonia or alcohol-based products. And wipe down shared surfaces.įollow these tips for cleaning surfaces - your own and public ones. So, what can you do to protect yourself? Well, you've likely already heard this. "Of more concern would be utensils, and plates and cups that might be handled by a large number of people in a cafeteria setting, for example," he says. So infection comes from getting the virus on your hands and then touching your own eyes, nose and mouth. That's because most infection from the new coronavirus starts with the respiratory system, not the digestive tract. Kuritzkes says that based on prior research, it seems that "flat surfaces and hard surfaces are more friendly to viruses than cloth or rough surfaces."Īnd how about food? "Food is probably not a major risk factor here," Kuritzkes says. ![]() Much is still unknown about the virus's survivability on other types of surfaces like clothing, or carpeting. "Direct sunlight can help rapidly diminish infectivity of viruses on surfaces," he says. "Ultraviolet light can be a really powerful disinfectant and we get a lot of UVA light from the sun," says Daniel Kuritzkes an infectious disease expert at Brigham and Women's Hospital. So the survivability may vary, too.įor instance, if the virus contaminates a sunny windowsill or countertop, it may not last as long. By comparison, "in the real world, conditions fluctuate" - conditions like temperature, humidity and light. "In a laboratory experiment, the conditions are pretty carefully controlled and constant," he says. Lloyd-Smith says these findings establish a good ballpark estimate for the survivability of the virus on these surfaces. "Big picture, the look very similar to each other in terms of their stability in these environments," Lloyd-Smith says. They did this multiple times, for both the viruses, at various time points. ![]() Then the researchers documented whether the virus could infect those cells in the dish. In the lab, "they'd pick up the virus from the surfaces that had been contaminated and then put into cell cultures," he explains. ![]() To test the survival time of the virus, scientists at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana, part of the National Institutes of Health, conducted a series of experiments comparing the novel coronavirus with the SARS virus (a similar coronavirus that led to an outbreak back in 2003). Virus-laden respiratory droplets can land on doorknobs, elevator buttons, handrails or countertops - and spread the virus to anyone who then touches these surfaces. It's useful to know how long it can stay alive of course, because the virus can contaminate surfaces when an infected person sneezes or coughs. For instance, the virus remained viable on copper for only about four hours. Interestingly, some surfaces are less hospitable to SARS-CoV-2. The study is out in preprint form and expected to be published. "This virus has the capability for remaining viable for days," says study author, James Lloyd-Smith, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, who researches how pathogens emerge.Īlthough the World Health Organization had previously estimated the survival time on surfaces to be a "few hours to a few days" based on research on other coronaviruses, this is the first study by scientists at a federal laboratory to test the actual virus causing the current pandemic, SARS-CoV-2. How long can the new coronavirus live on a surface, like say, a door handle, after someone infected touches it with dirty fingers? A study out this week finds that the virus can survive on hard surfaces such as plastic and stainless steel for up to 72 hours and on cardboard for up to 24 hours. When an infected person touches a surface, like a door handle, there's a risk they leave viruses stuck there that can live on for two to three days.
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