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Coronavirus ‘can last for days’ on surfaces – here’s how to kill it
It’s important to keep your home clean and your surfaces disinfected during the coronavirus outbreak: Here are the best ways to do it.
Image via Adobe Stock
The coronavirus is proving itself to be one of the biggest global challenges we’ve faced in a generation. International shutdowns and financial crashes are symptomatic of a pandemic. But as social distancing measures come into effect, it’s important to keep your home and surroundings clean.
Keep it clean, Mzansi
In truth, it goes without saying: House-proud South Africans will be doing everything they can to keep their properties spic-and-span during these testing times. But coronavirus is a different breed of disease, and it poses unique challenges as the germ that put the world on a knife-edge.
Recent studies have highlighted just how stubborn COVID-19 can be. Droplets of the virus – spread by coughs or sneezes – linger in the air for hours at a time. It’s worse if they settle on a surface, too. According to medical journal MedrXiv, Coronavirus can last for days on certain materials…
How long does coronavirus last for?
- Glass or plastic: Up to nine days.
- Stainless steel: Two or three days.
- Cardboard: 24 hours.
- Copper: Three or four hours.
- In the air: Three or four hours.
- Tables, doorknobs, light switches, desks and phones have also been highlighted as ‘frequently-touced objects’.
How to kill coronavirus
These figures, when compared to how flu germs behave, are a cause for concern – but it needn’t be anything more dramatic than that: There are a myriad of ways to kill coronavirus if it’s in your home. COVID-19 can be effectively wiped away by household disinfectants. Products containing either 62-71% ethanol, 0.5% hydrogen peroxide or 0.1% sodium hypochlorite (bleach) can erase the virus within a minute.
However, it’s not recommended you use these products on your hands. You must continue to use alcohol-based hand sanitizers, hot water and soap. Limiting your social contact and distancing yourself from others will reduce your chances of catching coronavirus from elsewhere, too.
When cleaning surfaces, allow disinfectants at least 30 seconds to settle before wiping it away. You need to let the chemicals do their work before washing down the solution. This is the most effective way of nullifying the disease.
