WAAY 31 Coronavirus Concerns Q&A: How long does the coronavirus live?

WAAY 31 Coronavirus Concerns Q&A: How long does the coronavirus live?

Questions to share@waaytv.com.

Let's get back to the questions.

Barbara asks, how long does coronavirus live?

For instance, i wash my hands after i take the mail from the mailbox but i'm concerned the mail might be contaminated with the virus.

>> dr. patellis: that's a hard question because depends on several variables in regards to how long that virus is able to survive outside its host or vector.

You know, it depends on the environmental surface.

It depends on the temperature in the environment.

Even light can affect how long that virus is going to last for.

But again, it comes down to what's the likelihood of getting inoculation from the virus.

If you're located in an area where the high concentration of virus, you have a higher incidence of having self-inoculation or inoculation otherwise.

The importance is, one, when you receive a package just assume that there's an infectious component to it.

You can wipe it down but just washing your hands, just by the sheer fact of washing your hands diminishes the viral load