Machamer: What's getting a lot of press and is presented out of context is that the virus can last on plastic for 72 hours-which sounds really scary. How worried should we be about our risk of becoming infected simply by touching something an infected person was in contact with days ago? Volkin: According to this report, it sounds like the COVID-19 virus is potentially living on surfaces for days. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. It is also detectable in the air for three hours.Ĭarolyn Machamer, a professor of cell biology whose lab at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has studied the basic biology of coronaviruses for years, joined Johns Hopkins MPH/MBA candidate Samuel Volkin for a brief discussion of these findings and what they mean for efforts to protect against spread of the virus. The study found that the virus is viable for up to 72 hours on plastics, 48 hours on stainless steel, 24 hours on cardboard, and 4 hours on copper. According to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can live in the air and on surfaces between several hours and several days.
