The coronavirus can live up to three hours in the air and up to three days on certain surfaces, according to a new study that illustrates the difficulty in containing it.
The coronavirus, also called COVID-19, “could be detected” in the air “up to 3 hours post aerosolization, up to 4 hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to 2-3 days on plastic and stainless steel,” according to the study, which was first reported by the Associated Press.
The virus, the authors noted, demonstrates “relatively long viability on stainless steel and polypropylene [plastic] compared to copper or cardboard.”
The test was conducted by a group of scientists at the National Institute of Health’s Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, Mont., and funded in part by the U.S. government.
The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the outbreak a pandemic, a label that references the rate of spread, not the mortality rate. The death rate in the epicenter of Wuhan, China, was about 3-4 percent, but elsewhere has been much lower – about 0.7 percent.
“WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction,” WHO said. “We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.”
The government-funded study, though,…
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