How long can coronavirus survive on surfaces?
There's still a lot to learn about the hardiness of this particular virus, but similar members of the coronavirus family have been explored in detail, including the coronaviruses responsible for the SARS and MERS outbreaks. Particularly notable is an article published on Feb. 6 in The Journal of Hospital Infection, which looked at a host of previous studies (22 in total) and found coronaviruses may persist on surfaces for up to 9 days.
One of the chief concerns for the public has been around whether or not getting packages shipped across the world could help spread the virus. Different materials are able to keep the virus alive for longer outside the body, but a range of factors need to be taken into account when evaluating virus survival. The CDC is still investigating this, but have come up with numbers for certain surfaces.
"On copper and steel it's pretty typical, it's pretty much about two hours," Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, told U.S. lawmakers on Feb. 27, according to a report by Reuters. "But I will say on other surfaces - cardboard or plastic - it's longer, and so we are looking at this."
The CDC will continue to investigate but believes the risk of contracting coronavirus from packages is still low.
Should you be worried?
Despite the increasing spread of the disease outside of China, the WHO remains resolute that the outbreak has not yet reached "pandemic" levels. "Using the word pandemic now does not fit the facts, but it may certainly cause fear," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general.
As the virus has continued to spread, it's easy to get caught up in the fear and alarmism rampantly escalating through social media. There is misinformation and disinformation swirling about the effects of the disease, where it's spreading and how. Experts still caution the virus appears to be mild, especially in comparison to infections by other viruses, like influenza or measles, and markedly lower death rates than previous coronavirus outbreaks.
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