Researchers from Australia’s national science agency suggest SARS-Cov-2 can survive for on phones, stainless steel and banknotes for 28 days.
Transmission of the virus is mostly through people talking, coughing or sneezing, which emits particles in the air as wells as surfaces, particularly metal and plastic.
It was previously thought that coronavirus could survive for just six days on plastic and stainless steel and up to three days on banknotes.
The Australian science agency CSIRO, said the virus is “extremely robust” for surviving on smooth surfaces for 28 days when kept at 20C, or room temperature.
“Establishing how long the virus really remains viable on surfaces enables us to more accurately predict and mitigate its spread, and do a better job of protecting our people,” said CSIRO chief executive Dr Larry Marshall.
Dr Debbie Eagles, deputy director of the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness said, “Our results show that SARS-CoV-2 can remain infectious on surfaces for long periods of time, reinforcing the need for good practices such as regular handwashing and cleaning surfaces.
“At 20 degrees Celsius, which is about room temperature, we found that the virus was extremely robust, surviving for 28 days on smooth surfaces such as glass found on mobile phone screens and plastic banknotes.
“For context, similar experiments for Influenza A have found that it survived on surfaces for 17 days, which highlights just how resilient SARS-CoV-2 is.”
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