The coronavirus may live for three days on some surfaces such as plastic and steel, although the amount of viable virus is drastically reduced during this time — suggests a new study published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Experts say that the risk of exposure of consumers from touching these materials is still low, although they suggested that additional warnings about how long the virus can survive in the air, which could have important implications for health professionals.
According to the researchers, when the virus is suspended in droplets with the size less than five micrometers, known as aerosols, it can remain in limbo for about 30 minutes before to drift and settle on surfaces where it can stay for a few hours. This conclusion is not consistent with the position of the world health organization that the virus is not transmitted by air.
A new study also suggests that the virus can survive up to 24 hours for cartons, although it breaks down during the day — this means that the cartons that arrive in the mail, will contain only low levels of virus if only the courier sakallah or sneezed on it, or handled it with contaminated hands.
Another study, the largest to date among children and viruses, showed that, although most of them develop mild or moderate symptoms, a small percentage — especially children and preschoolers can become seriously ill. Children represent the smallest percentage of the tens of thousands of infections identified worldwide.
