Coronavirus can be killed with disinfectant but beware high-touch surfaces, new research from Singapore shows
- The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, indicates current decontamination measures are sufficient
- Scientists also conclude that, beyond catching the virus through coughing, environmental contamination is an important factor in transmission
The virus was however killed by twice-a-day cleaning of surfaces and daily cleaning of floors with a commonly used disinfectant – suggesting that current decontamination measures are sufficient as long as people adhere to them.
The research letter was published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), following cases in China where the pathogen spread extensively through hospitals, infecting dozens of health care workers and other patients.
This led scientists to believe that, beyond catching the infection through coughing, environmental contamination was an important factor in the disease’s transmission, but its extent was unclear.
Researchers at Singapore’s National Centre for Infectious Diseases and DSO National Laboratories looked at the cases of three patients who were held in isolation rooms between late January and early February. They collected samples from their rooms on five days over a two-week period.
The room of one patient was sampled before routine cleaning, while the rooms of the other two patients were sampled after disinfection measures.
The patient whose room was sampled before cleaning had the mildest symptoms of the three, only experiencing a cough. The other two had moderate symptoms: both had coughing and fever, one experienced shortness of breath and the other was coughing up mucus.
Despite this disparity, the patient whose room was sampled before cleaning contaminated 13 of 15 room sites tested, including a chair, the bed rail, a glass window, the floor, and light switches.