The spread of infection is diligently trying to avoid disinfecting everything that a person's hands touch, including handrails in public transport, elevator buttons and even food. Regarding the latter, the supervisory services reassure us: there have been no precedents yet. But other items are carefully processed. About what materials have antiviral properties - in the material "Rambler".
It has already been determined that the coronavirus lives on cardboard for up to 24 hours, and on plastic and metal (stainless steel) for up to three days. However, scientists do not yet argue about the truth of the last statement.
The danger in itself carries not only COVID-19, which, of course, has been on everyone's lips lately. E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus persist on the surfaces of inanimate objects for several months.
Scientists are betting on coating the material with a special layer that kills pathogens, or on using metals that have antibacterial and antiviral properties. We are talking about copper and silver, which are capable of destroying more than 99.9% of microorganisms in just two hours. True, the latter metal needs moisture to activate this property.
Gerald Larua-Momu, an infectious disease researcher at Imperial College London, believes that the use of copper as a material that a priori often touches a person (doorknobs, elevator buttons) can help fight threats such as the coronavirus pandemic.
