The study has also revealed that COVID-19 can also survive for days on surfaces where the infected water droplets have landed

This discovery was made by a team of Chinese government epidemiologists. The study has also revealed that COVID-19 can also survive for days on surfaces where the infected water droplets have landed, which when comes in contact with another person, can easily infect them when he/she rubs the face without disinfecting or washing hands.

The survival rate of the virus is dependent on various factors such as the temperature of the environment. For instance, at 37 degrees celsius, it has the ability to survive for two to three days on surfaces made from glass, fabric, metal plastic and paper.

This study is based on an outbreak case from January 22 in Hunan province in China, where a passenger (who felt sick at the time) boarded a fully-booked long-distance coach during peak Lunar Year travel season (before coronavirus was declared a national crisis). He wasn’t wearing a mask, neither were other people on the 48-seater bus, resulting in many passengers getting infected on the four-hour journey.

Even though the sick passenger didn’t interact with others on the closed bus, but by the time the bus reached the next city, he had already infected seven others. This included people not just sitting next to him/her but also some sitting six rows away — around 4.5 metres away.