Aerosol and surface stability of SARS-CoV-2
Dr. Jamie Lloyd-Smith is a professor at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA. His lab focuses on combining mathematical and computer models with field and laboratory data to understand how infectious diseases spread and evolve, and how to reduce their health impacts.
Dr. Jamie Lloyd-Smith and colleagues recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine that SARS-CoV-2 virus remains for several hours to days on surfaces and in aerosols. They studied the lifetime of virus on a surface to evaluate the impact of the virus being deposited onto everyday surfaces in a household or hospital setting by an infected patient through coughing or touching objects. The study revealed that the virus is detectable for up to three hours in aerosols, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel. Dr. Jamie Lloyd-Smith advised the general public to avoid touching items in public as viruses could remain on surfaces.
Another study of Dr. Jamie Lloyd-Smith in the journal eLife demonstrated that screening travelers for COVID-19 is not effective at preventing the spread. They developed a mathematical model and estimated the impact of different screening programs. Even under the best-case assumptions, traveler screenings will miss more than half of infected people. This is because the majority of cases show no symptoms for five days or longer after exposure, and people infected with the virus may be spreading the virus without knowing they have been infected.
Additional information:
Link to Faculty website: https://faculty.eeb.ucla.edu/lloydsmith/index.php
Link to lab website: https://faculty.eeb.ucla.edu/lloydsmith/
Link to relevant papers: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32182409; https://elifesciences.org/articles/55570