irus tends to last longer on non-porous surfaces.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Researchers at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency have found that corona virus a new strain (SARS-CoV-2) that causes infection with the COVID-19 disease can last up to 28 days on the surface of public objects. These include things like paper, glass, cellphone screens, and stainless steel.
The study, conducted at the Australian Center for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) in Geelong, found that SARS-CoV-2 lasted longer at lower temperatures. Viruses also tend to last longer on non-porous or smooth surfaces such as glass, stainless steel and vinyl, than on porous ones like cotton.
Reported by Medical Express / CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall said surface resistance research was carried out on top of a number of other COVID-19 studies. He said that determining how long the virus actually remained on the surface would allow predictions about the new coronavirus to be more accurate and help reduce its spread.
“With this, better protection for everyone can be provided. “Together, we hope that a suite of scientific solutions will shift our focus to tackling specific viral hotspots so that we can get the economy back on track,” Marshall said.
Meanwhile, Debbie Eagles, deputy director of ACDP who has worked to research the virus and test potential vaccines said the results show that SARS-CoV-2 can remain infectious on surfaces for long periods of time. Therefore, reinforcing the need for personal protection, such as washing hands and cleaning surfaces regularly is necessary.
“At 20 degrees Celsius, which is the same as room temperature, we found that the virus was very strong, surviving for 28 days on the smooth, glassy surfaces found on cellphone screens and banknotes,” explains Eagles.
Eagles said, in context, similar experiments for Influenza A have found that it persists on surfaces for 17 days. The study involved drying the virus in artificial mucus on different surfaces, at concentrations similar to those reported in samples from infected patients and then re-isolating the virus for a month.
Further experiments were carried out at temperatures of 30 and 40 degrees Celsius, with survival time decreasing with increasing temperature. Research is also being carried out in the dark, to counteract the effects of UV rays because studies have shown direct sunlight can quickly inactivate the virus.
ACDP director Professor Trevor Drew said many viruses linger on surfaces outside of their hosts. He said how long the virus can survive and remain infectious depends on the type of virus, its quantity, surface, environmental conditions and how it is stored.
“This research could also help explain the apparent persistence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 in cool environments with high fat or protein contamination, such as meat processing facilities and how we can better address those risks,” Drew explained.
The results of this study of the effect of temperature on the persistence of SARS-CoV-2 on general surfaces have been published in Virology Journal.
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