The new coronavirus can survive on the surface of human skin for around nine hours, some five times the period influenza can, a team of researchers in Japan has found.
The researchers, including epidemiology specialist Ryohei Hirose, a research associate at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, additionally found that if the new coronavirus is exposed to alcohol-based disinfectant or ethanol of the same concentration, the virus is deactivated within 15 seconds.
As a result, Hirose is calling for people to thoroughly wash their hands or use alcohol-based disinfectant.