COVID-19 Surfaces Resistance and Proper Disinfection

In the rapidly evolving landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding the virus's behavior outside the human body has become paramount. How long does it survive on various surfaces? What are the potential risks of contamination from touched objects? And most crucially, how can we ensure effective disinfection? This article unravels the mysteries of COVID-19's resilience on surfaces and offers comprehensive guidelines for thorough and proper disinfection to curb its spread.

Coronavirus Surface Survival Time

COVID-19 Surfaces Resistance And Proper Disinfection

Specialists are not yet sure about COVID-19 surface survival, but it seems to be similar to other coronaviruses. Research implies that coronaviruses (including preliminary information on COVID-19) may survive on surfaces for a couple of hours to several days. It depends on the type of surface, humidity, or temperature.

An investigation of 22 previous studies of similar coronaviruses to COVID-19, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) published in February 2020 in the Journal of Hospital Infection, deduced that human-transmitted coronaviruses can remain infectious on non-organic surfaces for up to nine days at room temperature. But, they can be made inactive with the help of common disinfectants, and at higher temperatures.

However, it is not yet clear if COVID-19 behaves in a similar way. That is why you should properly disinfect all areas that you come in contact with.

Proper Disinfection During COVID-19 Pandemic

It is important to mainly wash your hands or disinfect them regularly and avoid touching your mouth, eyes, and nose with unclean hands. Specialists are not insisting on full decontamination after your grocery shopping for example, as the risk of infection from surfaces is low. They advise you to follow the basic rules of self-hygiene and to be careful around people while shopping and also to order things online if you have the possibility. But if you live with someone who is at a higher risk, following the steps below is advised.

Here are some guidelines to follow for disinfecting surfaces:

Clean often touched surfaces with common disinfectant(door handles, countertops, light switches, the car, your gadgets)
Wash your produce with plain water and maybe a veggie brush. Don't use disinfectant or soap on fruits or vegetables as you can contaminate your food with it. You can wipe packaged food in cans or boxes, gently, to not ruin or contaminate it.
Frequently wash your clothes, sheets, and towels.
Disinfect or wash your outwear like jackets and coats. You can use a spray sanitizer, steam them with hot vapor or simply wash them.
Refrigerating or freezing will not kill the virus so if you are worried about frozen food, just throw away the package and wash your hands after that.