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The second wave of Covid-19 hits Europe, with more infections being registered than for the first wave. Is this due to the lower number of undetected cases, or is the number of infected actually greater now? If the amount of cases are actually higher now, why do the numbers increase?
One reason might be the changing of seasons. Not only is the virus more stable as the temperature drops, activities are moved indoors to a larger extent also. It becomes even more important to ensure a good hand cleaning procedures and disinfection protocols.
Viruses are known to be transferred by aerosols, airborne droplets from a cough, sneeze or similar, but also through contact with contaminated surfaces. Transfer from a contaminated surface can have a transmission efficiency of 33%, both between object and hand, and also for hand to mouth [1]. The surface survivability of a pathogen determines how long a contaminated surface remains a source of infection.
An article from March concluded a surface survivability for SARS CoV-2 of 48-72 h on cardboard, plastic and metal [2]. However, a more recent article, looking at the survival time on bank notes, metal, glass and plastic, concluded that with a higher concentration of SARS CoV-2 (corresponding to the concentration in saliva from infected patients), a surface can remain a source of infection for as long as 28 days in room temperature [3]. The long survival time emphasize the need for effective disinfection procedures to ensure that “high touch” areas such as cash, touch screens and door knobs are safe to use.
EFSEN has a wide range of UVC products for surface disinfection, that can be used to efficiently disinfect surfaces. If you are interested in the technology or any of our products, please do consult our expertise in the area at efsen@efsen.dk
[1] P. Rusin, S. Maxwell, and C. Gerba, ‘Comparative surface-to-hand and fingertip-to-mouth transfer efficiency of gram-positive bacteria, gram-negative bacteria, and phage’, J Appl Microbiol, vol. 93, no. 4, pp. 585–592, Oct. 2002.
[2] N. van Doremalen et al., “Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1,” New England Journal of Medicine, Mar. 2020.
[3] S. Riddell, S. Goldie, A. Hill, D. Eagles, and T. W. Drew, ‘The effect of temperature on persistence of SARS-CoV-2 on common surfaces’, Virol J, vol. 17, no. 1, Oct. 2020.
For further information on UVC-systems by EFSEN – UV BARx1, UV TOWERx8, UV BENCH – read here.
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