Multiple Fake news claims:

A message circulating on social media regarding the lifespan of the coronavirus outside the human body.

If the coronavirus falls on a metal surface, it lives for 12 hours. If the coronavirus falls on fabric, it survives for 9 hours. The coronavirus lives on the hands for 10 minutes.

Facts Check Verdict: False / Fake

News Verification:

To verify the news Research (Doremalen et al 2020) published in the New England Journal of Medicine conducted by American scientists (preprint here) suggests that the new coronavirus (COVID-19) can live in the air for several hours and on some surfaces for as long as 2-3 days. They tested the virus by spraying into the air by a nebuliser mimicking the coughing action of an infected person. They found that it could be detected up to a minimum of 3 hours later in the air, up to 4 hours on copper surfaces, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to 2-3 days on plastic and stainless steel surfaces.

The longevity of the virus was determined by studying the decay time or half-life of the virus, which is the time it takes for it to reduce in 50% tissue-culture infectious dose (TCID50) per litre of air. It was determined that the virus stayed on cardboard, stainless steel and plastic for the longest period, in comparison to copper and aerosol droplets.

On average, the half-life of the virus on plastic surface was the highest, with an average of 15.9 hours (high 19.2 hours), copper was lower 3.4 hours (high 5.11 hours), and stainless steel was 13.1 hours (high 16.1 hours). No research was conducted on fabric at all. . Its survival on surfaces is similar to that of the SARS virus, to which it’s related. 

About The Author

Ashwin Chandra is an Indian fact-checker and news writer, writing news for Ayupp since 2014.

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