Image: NIAID
According to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can live in the air and on surfaces between several hours and several days. Volkin: According to this report, it sounds like the COVID-19 virus is potentially living on surfaces for days. How worried should we be about our risk of becoming infected simply by touching something an infected person was in contact with days ago? While the New England Journal of Medicine study found that the COVID virus can be detected in the air for 3 hours, in nature, respiratory droplets sink to the ground faster than the aerosols produced in this study. The experimental aerosols used in labs are smaller than what comes out of a cough or sneeze, so they remain in the air at face-level longer than heavier particles would in nature.
What is the best way I can protect myself, knowing that the virus that causes COVID-19 lives on surfaces?
There has been speculation that once the summer season arrives and the weather warms up, the virus won’t survive, but we don’t yet know if that is true. Does the weather or indoor temperature affect the survival of the COVID-19 virus on surfaces?
Read more on: https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/03/20/sars-cov-2-survive-on-surfaces/
