How Long Does the Coronavirus Live on Cardboard and Plastic?

Perhaps you have those worries.

When we usually take delivery, we will touch the carton and plastic; when we take the transportation, we may touch the stainless steel handrail.

How long can n ovel coronavirus 2019 survive live on these surfaces?
Not long ago, someone summarized the survival time data of ncov on various surfaces, and the data of the new coronavirus has been lacking. But now, the experimental data of novel coronavirus 2019 ncov is also coming.

Scholars from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Princeton University, and UCLA published their latest experimental results in the form of correspondence in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

The author of the article tested the survival time of the current novel coronavirus 2019 ncov (SARS-CoV-2) and past SARS viruses under 5 conditions (aerosol and 4 surfaces), and estimated these two using Bayesian regression The decay rate of a virus.

The four kinds of surfaces in the experiment are plastic, stainless steel, copper and cardboard, and all experimental measurements are the average of three replicates.

The researchers used a virus with a concentration of 105.25 / mL TCID50 to create an atomized environment, simulating the concentration of the sample from the patient's respiratory tract.

TCID50 represents half of the tissue infection dose, which is the concentration that can infect 50% of the cells in the test tube or well plate of cultured cells. 105.25 / mL means that 1mL dilution of 105.25 times will infect half of the cultured tissue cells.

The viral titers of the two viruses showed an exponential decay under all experimental conditions. All experimental data are as follows:

The article draws these conclusions:

During the entire 3 hours of the aerosol experiment, the new coronavirus can still survive in the air, similar to the survival time of SARS in the air, with a half-life of about 1.1 to 1.2 hours.
The new coronavirus has the shortest survival time on the copper surface, and no living body can be detected after 4 hours, and SARS can only survive for no more than 8 hours.
The two viruses have the longest life on stainless steel and plastic surfaces, with half-lives of 5.6 hours and 6.8 hours, respectively.
novel coronavirus 2019 ncov has a significantly longer half-life on the cardboard surface than SARS. Viruses were not detected after 24 hours, while SARS virus can only survive for 8 hours. However, the article points out that there are greater changes in this part of the experimental data, so it is recommended to be cautious.
In the tested experimental environment, the stability of SARS-CoV-2 is similar to the stability of SARS-CoV-1.

The experimental results show that the difference in epidemiological characteristics of novel coronavirus 2019 ncov and SARS may be caused by other factors, possibly due to the high viral content of the upper respiratory tract and the transmission of virus by asymptomatic patients with new coronary pneumonia.

Finally, we inevitably have access to these objects outside, and the virus can survive on these surfaces for hours. Here is a piece of advice to everyone, whether it is dismantling the express or going back home, be sure to wash your hands.