New research claims coronavirus can survive up to ‘17 days’ on surfaces

• Initial studies indicated that coronavirus could survive for up to three days of plastic and stainless steel.

Coronavirus cases across the globe skyrocketed leaving over 18000 dead and over half a million infected and put most parts of the world in isolation.

Adding insult to injury, scientists have revealed that the deadly virus may be able to survive on surfaces for much longer than previously thought.

Initial studies indicated that coronavirus could survive for up to three days of plastic and stainless steel. But now an analysis suggests that the virus can actually survive for up to 17 days.

As per Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers, who discovered traces of the virus in the rooms of infected passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, 17 days after they had left.

The ship had more than 700 coronavirus cases and was quarantined for a time off of Yokohama, Japan. In the study, the researchers looked at uncleaned rooms and discovered traces of the virus on several surfaces.

However, other research has found that cleaning the rooms was highly effective at killing the virus.

“SARS-CoV-2 RNA was identified on a variety of surfaces in cabins of both symptomatic and asymptomatic infected passengers up to 17 days after cabins were vacated on the Diamond Princess but before disinfection procedures had been conducted,” CDC explained in their report.

“Although these data cannot be used to determine whether transmission occurred from contaminated surfaces, further study of fomite transmission of SARS-CoV-2 aboard cruise ships is warranted.”

Their analysis revealed that the virus can survive for up to four hours on copper and up to 24 hours on cardboard.

However, the results indicate that the virus can survive for the longest time on plastic and stainless steel, surviving for up to three days.