How long the coronavirus could last on a surface

How long the coronavirus could last on a surface

The United States tries to determine the risk of receiving parcels that could arrive from sensitive areas. It would have the same behavior as the SARS and the MERSAs a new coronavirus spreads rapidly throughout the world, US health officials say they are " aggressively " assessing how long they can survive on surfaces to better understand the risk of transmission.

According to what is known about similar coronaviruses, disease experts say that the new virus outbreak, called COVID-19 , is transmitted primarily from person to person when coughing or sneezing . Contact with fecal matter of an infected person can also transmit the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States says that it is possible for a person to become infected by touching a surface or object that has the virus and then touching their mouth, nose or eyes .

An analysis of 22 previous studies of similar coronaviruses, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) published online this month in The Journal of Hospital Infection , concluded that human coronaviruses may remain infectious on inanimate surfaces for up to nine days at room temperature . However, they can quickly become inactive using common disinfectants, and they can also dissipate at higher temperatures, the authors wrote. However, it is still unclear whether the new coronavirus behaves similarly .

" Copper and steel is quite typical, it's almost two hours ," CDC director Robert Redfield told US lawmakers on Thursday , referring to how long the new coronavirus can be active in these types of materials. " But I will say that on other surfaces, cardboard or plastic, it is longer, so we are seeing this ."

The agency said it is likely that there is a very low risk of propagation of products or packaging that are shipped over a period of days or weeks at room temperature. A spokeswoman for the CDC, in a statement sent by email, said the agency is still investigating how contagious the virus can be when it is deposited on more common everyday surfaces .

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said this week that it has no evidence that COVID-19 has been transmitted from imported products, but the situation remains " dynamic " and the agency said it will evaluate and update Orientation as necessary.

"The big important message to take home is that this is probably a small proportion of the transmission of respiratory viruses, " said Timothy Brewer , professor of epidemiology and medicine at the University of California , Los Angeles . " In the community, these viruses probably don't survive on surfaces for a long time ."

Brewer explained that such viruses tend to survive longer in low temperature and low humidity environments, "that is why many respiratory viruses are seen during the winter ."