Coronaviruses are unusually tough. They can live for up to five days on hard surfaces outside the body, according to a recent report by researchers in Germany.
The report is a compilation of several different studies that investigated the survival of different types of coronavirus. It is made by a German research group in Greifswald and was presented in February this year. The report shows that coronaviruses of various kinds appear to be very viable as they fall outside the body. At least in laboratory environments, where the tests were done.
However, the current virus, called sars-cov-2, is not included in the studies, but there is no reason to believe that it behaves differently than the other coronaviruses. You can probably expect it to behave much like the others.
Five days on metal
Various materials, virus types and temperatures are listed. For example, sars-cov, a similar type of virus to the virus that is now spreading, survives for five days on metal at room temperature. After four days on wood and glass and for four to five days on paper, the same virus is still active.
This means that door handles, handrails, keypads for door and pin codes and other places that many people touch can store coronavirus infectious substances for a quite long time. This is unusual for the type of virus that is envelope-bearing, which means that the virus particle is enclosed in a lipid or fat envelope.
Someone has probably wondered how packages and shipments from virus-infected countries can take the disease with them. With the new findings in the report in mind, you can be calm with both boat and air cargo. Boats from China, for example, take such a long time, and although flights go faster, both the temperature and the air pressure are likely to take cabbage on the virus particles. But truck transports, from Europe, for example, could theoretically carry the disease.
For safety, you can spray with alcohol or disinfectant.
It also does not matter how much infection a virus heart contains. A virus particle probably does not survive alone for so long. But a greater amount of virus can live longer.
Easy to kill the virus
He notes that the measures taken by various infection clinics in the country, with tents outside the house for sampling, are fully in line with the results of the study. Otherwise, they would have to disinfect the entire room.
But the good news is that it is easy to kill the virus. Liquor works, as does soap or other fat-solvents. Because the virus has an envelope of fat, it is inactivated by these agents.
You should wash thoroughly, and not stain with the soap. Liquor also works. It deactivates the virus really fast, a few minutes is enough.
Infection from objects not clear
Nevertheless, the authority writes on its website that it is not yet “fully clear how long the virus will survive outside the body but preliminary information indicates that it can survive for a limited time and only under specific conditions”.
It has not yet been shown that the infection can be transmitted from objects to the hands, she says, explaining that the tests on which the report is based are carried out under very specific conditions in the laboratory environment. If we get evidence that the infection is spreading that way, we will go out with it.
However, hand washing and spirits are extremely effective against the infection. The virus is very sensitive to it
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