Study: COVID-19 can potentially live on surfaces for days

(FOX 9) - An initial study released Tuesday from the National Institutes of Health showed COVID-19 can live on surfaces.

White House officials Wednesday referred to the study that looked at how long the COVID-19 can live on surfaces and gave everyone an early look at how the virus could spread.

According to the study, the COVID-19 virus can live in the air up to three hours, on soft surfaces like cardboard for one day and on hard surfaces like plastic or stainless steel for up to three days.

Pete Raynor, a professor of public health at the University of Minnesota, pointed out this study is important. He said people need to consider its findings before you go around avoiding touching everything.

Raynor says you won’t get COVID-19 just by touching a surface.

“The virus is, through the best of our knowledge, is not transmitted through the skin. So, if you are able to wash it off the skin, disinfect the skin, it will not be transmitted,” Raynor said.

Just be sure you’re not touching your face after touching something potentially contaminated.

Raynor added that lab results aren’t always reality.

“We should keep in mind that the research was done in a laboratory so it’s kind of a worst case scenario from our perspective,” he said. “In the real world, it’s likely that the virus would survive less time than they would in the lab and remain infectious for less time.”

Just because the virus is still present on a surface doesn’t mean there’s enough of it to actually infect you.

Another important thing to remember, Raynor says, is that human-to-human contact is still the number one way the virus spreads.

“We think that the primary mode of transmission for the coronavirus is through people coughing and going through the air and reaching out people who are not already infected potentially so that’s why we have the advice to cover your cough and social distancing,” he added.