The novel coronavirus can linger on human skin for nine hours, which is seven hours more than influenza A virus (IAV) persistence, as per the study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases .
The study establishes the importance of using sanitizers and washing hands at frequent intervals of time in order to prevent the spread of the virus.
The researchers, including those from the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in Japan, noted that both SARS-CoV-2 virus and IAV were rapidly inactivated on the skin with a hand sanitizer.
The study also suggested that the viruses were inactivated more rapidly on skin surfaces than on other surfaces such as stainless steel, glass, and plastic.
An earlier study published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in March noted that the Covid-19 virus can last for about three hours in the air, up to four hours on copper, 24 hours on cardboard, and 72 hours on stainless steel.
In the new study, the researchers stated that SARS-CoV-2 could survive significantly longer (9 hours) than IAV (1.82 hours). Therefore, proper hand hygiene is important to reduce the risk of contact transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
Recently, the World Health Organization also stressed on the hand hygiene needs and urged people to adopt them as an integral part of their daily routine in order to prevent the transmission of various diseases, as per the previous report.