COVID-19: How Long Does Coronavirus live on Surfaces?

COVID-19 outbreaks in the world. The latest research published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" reveals how long the new coronavirus can survive in the environment. It was found that the virus likes plastic and stainless steel the most, and it may survive in airborne particles. More than 3 hours.

In order to further understand how long the pathogenic new coronavirus can survive outside the human body, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) formed a research team to conduct research The device imitates the patient's coughing and sneezing to generate droplets, and detects how long the virus can survive on the surface of the object in a home or hospital environment.
It was found that the new coronavirus survived the longest on the plastic surface, up to 72 hours, followed by 48 hours on the stainless steel surface, that is, once the virus was contaminated with various plastic daily necessities and stainless steel facilities such as handrails, door handles, etc., It is easier to spread the virus to the next person through contact.

As for the virus, if it falls on cardboard, it can survive for up to 24 hours, but it is even shorter on copper. It can't be detected for up to 4 hours.
In addition, the research team also used instruments to produce PM5.0 (5 microns) suspended particles to simulate the survival of the virus in the atomized environment. The results showed that the new coronavirus can survive up to 3 hours in the spray.
In this regard, Zhao Mingwei, an associate professor in the Department of Biotechnology of Zhongyuan University, believes that the virus size is below 0.1 micron, that is, about PM0.1, which may be adsorbed on the spray particles and scattered in the air. Although such an "aerosol" seems to survive Short time, but the most direct way of infection, can penetrate the respiratory system into the human body, the most lethal. However, he also added that most viruses are still transmitted with droplets. Therefore, wearing a medical mask can still block it, but if it is a medical staff, N95 will be the more recommended equipment.

The research team also compared these data with SARS-CoV-1, and found that the two lived on the surface of the object for a similar time, but the spread of the new coronavirus is much higher, NIH researchers speculate that asymptomatic infected people Viruses are important.

NIH's recommendations include:

1: Avoid close contact with sick people.
2: Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
3: Stay at home when you are sick.
4: Cover the cough or sneeze with a paper towel, and throw the paper towel into a trash can with a cover.
5: Commonly used cleaners and rags are used to disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.