COVID-19-survivability-audio-interview

0.00 – 00.14

Q: Why are you studying the virus on different surfaces? Why is it important?

A: “We need to understand how long the virus can remain infectious on different types of surfaces in order to evaluate the risk of people coming into contact with potentially contaminated surfaces.”

00.15 – 00.31

Q: And how long does it last for on different surfaces?

A: “So, we looked at a range of surfaces, we looked at glass, stainless steel, paper and polymer notes, and cotton cloth and vinyl, and we found that on the hard, non-porous surfaces, the survival was roughly the same across those surfaces.

00.31 – 00.41

Q: So, what surfaces are the hard non-porous ones?

A:So, the glass, stainless steel and vinyl and the paper and polymer notes are all fairly non-porous type surfaces.

00.42 – 01.00

Q: And how long did it last for on those surfaces?

A: So, we looked at a range of different temperatures and at 40 degrees, we weren’t able to recover infectious virus beyond 48 hours. However, when you lower the temperature down to 20 degrees, for all of those surfaces, we were able to recover virus from them at 28 days.

01.00 – 01.26

Q:So, it can last for a whole month on paper notes, glass surfaces, stainless steel at 20 degrees and 50 per cent humidity?

A: That’s correct. And we used a virus suspended in an artificial mucous, similar to a body secretions, and we used the amount of virus roughly similar to what’s observed in infected patients. And so yes, it can survive for up to 28 days on those types of surfaces.

01.27 – 01.47

Q: And so what does that mean then for out in the real world, if someone was to sneeze on one of those surfaces, in that sort of environment. What does that mean for us?

A: It certainly reinforces washing hands and sanitizing your hands regularly and also washing down and wiping down those surfaces that are high use areas.

01.48 – 02.12

Q: So, if I was to touch that surface 28 days after someone has sneezed on it, am I going to get infected?

A: So, we still don’t know what the infective dose to be able to contract COVID is, ah, but we do know that the more virus that is on a surface, the more chance you are going to get in contact and have enough of a dosage to get an infection.

02.12 – 02.37

Q: What were the different temperatures that you tested at?

A:So, we looked at 20 degrees, 30 degrees and 40 degrees and we looked at just a single humidity of 50 per cent which was roughly average. It is important to note that we also looked at this work was done in the dark. We do know that ultraviolet can inactivate the virus, so we wanted to remove any effect that light might have on viral decay.

02.38 – 02.59

Q: What was the difference at 20, 30 and 40 degrees?

A: At 40 degrees we weren’t able to recover any infectious virus past 48 hours, for 30 degrees, on average it was roughly seven days that we weren’t able to recover any virus but for 20 degrees, certainly on the non-porous surfaces, we were able to recover to virus up until 28 days.

03.00 – 03.31

Q: Can you assume anything about different temperatures based on the data?

A: The type of study that we conducted, we were able to determine decay rates along a range of temperatures and from that we were able to extrapolate what happens at different temperatures as well and so at lower temperatures, like what we are seeing in abattoirs and processing facilities, our data suggest that virus would remain infectious there for certainly up to months.

03.31 – 04.01

Q: What does it mean for people moving around in communities, and obviously these surfaces are everywhere, so, what does that mean for us all moving around in the community and keeping ourselves protected.

A: Wearing masks is fantastic, it stops people touching their nose and their face, also it reinforces washing hands regularly and using hand sanitizers were available, and also being able to wash down those potentially high contact surfaces is also very important.

04.01 – 04.38

Q: Tell me about the surfaces you used and why you chose to use them?

A: We chose stainless steel, glass, vinyl, paper and polymer notes and cotton cloth. We chose those surfaces as they’re quite common surfaces in the public domain. So, stainless steel, made from door knobs, hand rails, glass for glass windows and also touchscreen devices, vinyl is used for seat coverings and also hand grab rails. Paper and poly banknotes are also currencies obviously, and exchange between people quite frequently, and so that was an important one to look at. And cotton cloths important for tablecloths, clothing, that sort of thing.

04.39 – 04.58

Q: And did you notice any differences between any of those different surfaces?

A: So, certainly with the hard surfaces, stainless steel, glass, vinyl and the notes, there was very little difference that we observed. Cotton cloth certainly wasn’t as able to support virus as well as what the others were.