Can You Get COVID-19 from Touching Infected Surfaces?

Can You Get COVID-19 from Touching Infected Surfaces?
Important Information Regarding Delta Variant

By now we are all aware that as a respiratory virus, COVID-19’s main transmission method is through airborne droplets passed between people. This is why masks have been so heavily recommended, and in some cases, mandated in public places. But a year and a half into the pandemic, we are dealing with an ever-evolving body of research data and guidance from experts on how to address the issues related to transmission, treatment, and prevention. Currently, we are facing the latest mutation of the virus, the Delta variant, and its more dangerous characteristics and effects on the human body.

According to the CDC, the Delta variant is more virulent. It is more contagious, and once a person is infected, the symptoms are harsher than the original coronavirus that started the pandemic. Not only is it more transmissible, but it also grows faster on hard, non-porous surfaces and stays on them longer.

What does this mean when it comes to our everyday lives and staying safe? Cleaning, and especially hard surface disinfection, is becoming more important. Of course, handwashing and wearing masks are still the foundation of the CDC’s recommendations for stopping the spread of COVID-19, but now that the Delta variant is here, surface transmission has become a factor to consider. And to fight surface transmission, we need to clean and disinfect them.

Infected Surfaces

To understand how to combat COVID-19 on surfaces, we need to understand what kinds of surfaces are likely to harbor it. This will help answer the question, can you get COVID from touching surfaces? It is certainly a question that has been on our minds since the beginning of the pandemic.

To answer this, researchers have studied how long SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can survive on various types of surfaces. They have found that it can survive on both porous and non-porous surfaces. Porous surfaces are any surfaces that have pores, which are tiny, microscopic holes that allow air or liquids to pass through. Examples of porous surfaces are wood, cork, sponges, stone, and some types of tile and plastic.

As you might guess, these are materials that furniture and other interior designs are made from, which is why restaurants and other public places must clean and disinfect after customer use. However, the researchers have found that the virus can only survive on porous surfaces for a few minutes to a few hours. So regular cleaning between contact with these surfaces proves effective in preventing transmission of the virus.

How Long Can Viruses Live?

On the other hand, non-porous surfaces present more of a challenge in combating COVID. Researchers have found that the virus can live for days to weeks on surfaces that don’t have holes allowing liquids or vapors to pass through. Since the virus has nowhere to go when it lands on one of these surfaces, it stays there for a while longer, increasing the risk that contact with the surface will result in transmission. Examples of these surfaces include glass, plastics, metals, and varnished wood. So in this day and age of digital devices, you guessed it — our phones are one of the high-touch surfaces likely to harbor and transmit the virus after contact.

For this reason, it is especially important to clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces like electronics. Obviously, you can’t have effective hygiene if you don’t disinfect what’s in your hands all the time… for most of us, that’s our phone. Any other shared electronics, like computers and TVs, fall into this category too.

Can You Get COVID-19 from Touching Infected Surfaces?

That said, the CDC still makes clear that surface contact is not the main route of transmission. Again, being a respiratory virus, COVID-19 is most likely to travel through droplets in the air, passed between an infected person to a new host. So we can still assume the risk is low that you will get COVID from touching surfaces. Low risk obviously doesn’t mean no risk, so keep those high-touch surfaces like your phone and tables or other eating surfaces in public places squeaky clean!

How Enviro Safe Can Help

If you are the owner or manager of one of those public places with high-touch surfaces, like a restaurant or bar or an office waiting room, you might still find it a bit daunting to keep up with a cleaning and disinfecting regimen to ensure that risk of surface transmission remains low. Hiring a professional disinfecting service could be your best option in these cases.

Enviro Safe professionals specialize in surface disinfection with a variety of methods and materials. We go beyond the ordinary mop and bucket or soap and sponge with options like whole room disinfection and electrostatic spraying, which allows disinfectants to uniformly coat surfaces and hard-to-reach places, like undersides and crevasses (again, think dining tables or waiting room coffee tables).

Enviro Safe Disinfecting Infected Surfaces

A professional disinfecting service also allows you to customize your regimen to fit your business’s unique needs. Rather than taking a “one size fits all” approach, we can tailor your service to the nature of your clientele and business hours. Even if you are a busy doctor’s office or urgent care, or a popular pub in the neighborhood, your business can still be low risk for surface transmission with a disinfecting service like Enviro Safe.