Study: COVID survives on skin for 9 hours, 5 times longer than flu

Japanese researchers say peer-reviewed findings show need for frequent handwashing to combat coronavirus transmission

By AFP 18 October 2020, 9:51 am

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A new way of greeting to avoid the spread of coronavirus. (iStock by Getty Images)

TOKYO, Japan — The coronavirus remains active on human skin for nine hours, Japanese researchers have found, in a discovery they said showed the need for frequent handwashing to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pathogen that causes the flu survives on human skin for about 1.8 hours by comparison, said the study published this month in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal.

“The nine-hour survival of SARS-CoV-2 [the virus strain that causes COVID-19] on human skin may increase the risk of contact transmission in comparison with IAV [influenza A virus], thus accelerating the pandemic,” it said.

The research team tested skin collected from autopsy specimens, about one day after death.

Medical staff wearing protective clothes move the body of a patient who died from complications of coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, at the coronavirus ward of the Ziv Medical Center in the northern city of Safed, on October 7, 2020. (David Cohen/Flash90)

Both the coronavirus and the flu virus are inactivated within 15 seconds by applying ethanol, which is used in hand sanitizers.

“The longer survival of SARS-CoV-2 on the skin increases contact-transmission risk; however, hand hygiene can reduce this risk,” the study said.

The study backs World Health Organization guidance for regular and thorough hand washing to limit transmission of the virus, which has infected nearly 40 million people around the world since it first emerged in China late last year.