Japanese researchers have found new evidence for the need to wash hands regularly in the fight against the coronavirus. The virus that causes Covid-19 survives on the skin for 9 hours.
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The new coronavirus survives on people’s skin five times longer than a flu virus. It survives on human skin for nine hours, a flu virus only 1.8 hours, according to a study published in the scientific journal Clinical Infectious Diseases Journal.
“The nine-hour survival time of SARS-CoV-2 on human skin increases the risk of contact transmission compared to the flu virus, accelerating the pandemic,” say the Japanese researchers.
They studied the survival time on the skin of people who had recently died. Both the coronavirus and the flu virus are shut down within 15 seconds when using ethanol, which is contained in hand gels. The longer the new coronavirus remains on the skin, the greater the chance of spreading, the researchers said. “Hand hygiene can reduce that risk,” say the scientists.
Nearly 40 million people worldwide have been infected with the corona virus since the outbreak in China at the end of last year.
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