The novel coronavirus can survive for up to several hours on human skin, a new study suggests. 'We generated a model that allows the safe reproduction of clinical studies on the application of pathogens to human skin and elucidated the stability of SARS-CoV-2 on the human skin.' For the study, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, the team obtained human skin from forensic autopsy specimens 24 hours prior. Skin cells were mixed with samples of the coronavirus and with influenza virus A, which also spreads through droplets and human contact. By comparison, the survival time of the coronavirus on the human skin was about nine hours, significantly longer than the influenza strain.

Source: Daily Mail October 05, 2020 22:34 UTC