Yes, the coronavirus COVID-19 is able to survive for a few days on some surfaces. So – is it necessary to sanitize each product when you come back from the supermarket? The answer is no; the most important thing is washing your hands carefully – as soon as you get home, but also immediately after putting away any items in the fridge or pantry. Let's clarify that a bit.
How long does the coronavirus survive on surfaces?
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine evaluated how long coronavirus can survive on some surfaces. On plastic surfaces, it can survive the longest, but after 7 hours, its infectious capacity is cut in half, and after 72 hours, it dies out. On steel, its survival rate is halved in 6 hours and in 48 hours, it zeroes out. On cardboard, it takes 5 hours to halve its survival rate and 24 hours until it dies; on copper, 2 hours to cut survival in half and 4 hours until it’s no longer a risk. Though research has analyzed the survival of the virus at room temperature, there is no reason that something different would occur in the refrigerator according to experts.
The best sanitizers to use
After using ordinary disinfectants – containing active chemicals like ethyl alcohol (62-71% ethanol), hydrogen peroxide (0.5% hydrogen peroxide) or bleach (0.1% sodium hypochlorite) – the virus will die within one minute.
But the most relevant and important result from studies performed so far?
So far, however, no studies performed have demonstrated that you can get infected with coronavirus just by touching a surface; even if the virus is detected, it does not necessarily infect a person (if you proceed to touch your mouth, eyes or nose with “contaminated” hands, for example).
For this reason, it is not necessary to use alcohol or hydrogen peroxide on your grocery store purchases, confirms virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco of the Università Statale of Milan to the Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera.” He explains further: "If I should have the misfortune of having items that someone has possibly coughed on, the same rules apply – as they would for any surface: I shouldn’t touch my mouth and I should wash my hands often. I don’t think it’s necessary to disinfect the packaging or the plastic bag.” The coronavirus is very easily transmitted from human-to-human, and so far, there haven’t been any documented cases of contagion occurring through objects.
Moreover, we shouldn’t be afraid of ingesting the virus; even if we ingest contaminated food, this would not be enough to infect us. The rule that always applies? Wash your hands before starting to cook, before eating and even after clearing the table. When we are not sure if our hands are clean, we must be careful not to touch our faces.