How long does coronavirus survive on my clothes?
Hello everyone,
I hope you are safe and well. Here’s what I’ve learned from Metafact experts this week:
More data on how the virus survives on surfaces
Research has previously shown that coronavirus prefers hard shiny surfaces to soft porous ones. New research published this week from Professor Leo Poon and colleagues at The University of Hong Kong confirmed this general pattern, with some additional insights. I contacted him to ask some questions, but here’s an infographic I made up for you about the study to help you learn and share:
The virus doesn’t like heat
The virus is highly stable at 4°C, but sensitive to heat.
The new study found the virus to be inactivated completely between 1 to 5-minutes at 70°C (158°F). At 56°C, the virus was undetected between 10 to 30-minutes. That's why cooking food is very safe as I wrote in detail about last week. At 37°C (a typical bath), it was undetected in 48hours while at 4°C, it was found to last over 2 weeks. To summarise:
Surprising finding about masks
The researchers then tested how long infectious virus particles would last at room temperature 22°C ( 72°F) on different surfaces. Of the surfaces at home, plastic and steel were the longest, allowing the infectious virus to survive up to 4 days. However most concerning from the study was:
Strikingly, a detectable level of infectious virus could still be present on the outer layer of a surgical mask on day 7
This finding is concerning for health-care workers in particular (if they can’t throw out their masks after use) and will add to the debate over whether masks should be worn by the general public. More on that in a future post.
Doesn’t seem to like paper but lasts 1-2days on clothes
The good news in the study was no infectious virus could be recovered from printing or tissue papers after 3-hours. That means handling letters and papers is likely a low risk for transmission.
For cloth, they found no infectious virus after 24-48hrs. That’s much better than hard shiny surfaces like doorknobs, fridges and benchtops which it lasted 4-7days. How concerned should we be about clothes? Should we wash more often? I asked Professor Poon. Like all other experts, he emailed me back saying we should still focus on social distancing and washing hands regularly:
I think the most important thing is minimizing close contacts and maintaining good hand hygiene. Of course, if you are in a high-risk area, better with protective wears.
The study has now been peer-reviewed, but important to know it’s still just one study. I will update you as more evidence comes in.
Misleading headlines that coronavirus lasted 17days in cabin
It was widely reported that the US Center for Disease Control detected coronavirus in the cabin of the cruise ship Diamond Princess after 17 days. Should we now freak out that the virus lingers around our houses and cars for weeks?? No, those reports are misleading.
The CDC detected viral RNA or ribonucleic acid, which carries the virus’s genetic information. Viral RNA is not the same thing as infectious virus:
It’s very important to remember that viral RNA will survive longer than actual infectious virus. In the case of influenza virus, which shares many biochemical properties with SARS-CoV-2, as well as the ability to be spread via surface contamination, research has shown that viral RNA lasts for days on surfaces but the infectivity of the virus drops off exponentially and is largely gone after a few hours.
writes Professor Digard, Chair of Virology at the University of Edinburgh.
Stay safe and may the facts be with you!
Ben McNeil, Founder of Metafact
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