TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
New coronavirus can survive on surfaces for hours: Study
Scientists found that the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease had similar levels of viability outside the body to its predecessor that caused SARS.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
This handout illustration image obtained Feb. 27, 2020 courtesy of the US Food and Drug Administration shows the coronavirus,COVID-19. (AFP/Handout / US Food and Drug Administration)
T
he novel coronavirus can survive on surfaces or in the air for several hours, according to a US-government funded study published Tuesday.
Scientists found that the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease had similar levels of viability outside the body to its predecessor that caused SARS.
This means that factors like greater transmission between people with no symptoms might be why the current pandemic is far greater than the SARS outbreak of 2002-2003.
The new paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and carried out by scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), University of California, Los Angeles and Princeton.
The new coronavirus was detectable for up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel, and for up to 24 hours on cardboard.
The team used a nebulizer to simulate a person coughing or sneezing, and found that the virus was detectable for three hours in the air.
The study was first posted on a medical pre-print website last week before it was peer-reviewed, and attracted much attention, including some criticism from scientists who said that it may have overstated the airborne threat.
The virus is predominantly transmitted by respiratory droplets and in this form it is viable for only a few seconds after a person coughs or sneezes.
Critics questioned whether a nebulizer accurately mimicked a human cough or sneeze.
The team behind the NEJM study performed similar tests on the SARS virus, finding the two viruses behave similarly.
But their similar viability fails to explain why the novel coronavirus pandemic has infected close to 200,000 people and caused almost 8,000 deaths, while the SARS epidemic infected about 8,000 and killed nearly 800.
"This indicates that differences in the epidemiologic characteristics of these viruses probably arise from other factors, including high viral loads in the upper respiratory tract and the potential for persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 to shed and transmit the virus while asymptomatic," wrote the researchers.
SARS-CoV-2 is the technical name for the new coronavirus.
The findings affirm guidance from public health professionals regarding social distancing, avoiding touching the face, covering your cough or sneeze, and frequently disinfecting objects using cleaning sprays or wipes.
