Preliminary Study Reveals How Long the Coronavirus May Linger On Various Surfaces

An anonymous reader writes: The coronavirus appears able to linger in the air for up to three hours and on plastic and stainless steel surfaces for two to three days, according to laboratory tests run by a team of federal and academic scientists in the US. It's unclear whether the virus would behave the same way in the real world. The new study, published Tuesday, was uploaded to MedRxiv, a repository of early-stage scientific papers that have not yet been peer reviewed.

The new tests found that the ability of the novel coronavirus, also known as SARS-CoV-2, to stay in the air and on surfaces was highly similar to that of SARS, which is also caused by a coronavirus, according to the paper, which was done by researchers from the National Institutes of Health, the CDC, UCLA, and Princeton University. The scientists ran a battery of tests with a strain of SARS-CoV-2. They sprayed it into a rotating drum and measured how long it stayed in the air: three hours. They also deposited small amounts on plastic and stainless steel (up to two to three days), copper (up to four hours), and on cardboard (24 hours). The CDC says person-to-person contact is believed to be the main way the new virus is transmitted, though transmission through contaminated objects and surfaces "may be possible."
Currently, the agency advises staying at least six feet away from people who are coughing and sneezing, and cleaning and disinfecting touched surfaces in household common areas, from sinks to light switches to tables.

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