>... SARS-CoV-2 can remain infectious for significantly longer time periods than generally considered possible.

>The present study has demonstrated that in controlled conditions, SARS-CoV-2 at a starting viral load and in a fluid matrix equivalent to that typically excreted by infected patients, remains viable for at least 28 days when dried onto non-porous surfaces at 20 °C and 50% relative humidity. Research on the original SARS virus also showed recovery of infectious virus when dried on plastic for up to 28 days at room temperature and 40–50% RH [23]. Recent data published on SARS-CoV-2 survivability on hospital PPE observed viable virus up to 21 days post inoculation on both plastic and N95 mask material when held at room temperature [11], correlating with the data presented in this study. The persistence of SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces presented here and from Kasloff et al. [11] demonstrate significantly longer time points than previously published data for SARS-CoV-2 [5, 24]. These earlier studies reported recovery of infectious SARS-CoV-2 up to 3 days post inoculation and 4 days on non-porous surfaces, respectively. The titre of virus used in this study is at least 2 logs higher than used in the paper by van Doremalen et al. [5], which may account for the longer survivability. Work by Lai et al. has shown that stability of SARS virus was enhanced with higher concentrations [25]. Temperature and humidity are both critical factors in viral survivability with an increase in either being detrimental to virus survival [23, 26, 27]. Survivability on stainless steel coupons for transmissible gastroenteritis virus and murine hepatitis virus (both coronaviruses) was reduced with higher humidity’s and temperature [28] and survivability of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus also followed a similar pattern [29]. The higher humidity of ~ 65% RH used by Chin et al. [24] may explain the shorter persistence of virus when compared to the data presented here.

>The persistence on glass is an important finding, given that touchscreen devices such as mobile phones, bank ATMs, supermarket self-serve checkouts and airport check-in kiosks are high touch surfaces which may not be regularly cleaned and therefore pose a transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2. It has been demonstrated that mobile phones can harbour pathogens responsible for nosocomial transmission [44], and unlike hands, are not regularly cleaned [45]. The data presented in this study correlates well with previously published data for Influenza A (H1N1) which recovered infectious virus up to 22 days at 22 °C and 7 days at 35 °C [37]. The persistence of SARS-COV-2 on glass and vinyl (both common screen and screen protector materials, suggest that touchscreen devices may provide a potential source of transmission, and should regularly be disinfected especially in multi-user environments.

>CONCLUSIONS
The data presented in this study demonstrates that infectious SARS-CoV-2 can be recovered from non-porous surfaces for at least 28 days at ambient temperature and humidity (20 °C and 50% RH). Increasing the temperature while maintaining humidity drastically reduced the survivability of the virus to as little as 24 h at 40 °C. The persistence of SARS-CoV-2 demonstrated in this study is pertinent to the public health and transport sectors. This data should be considered in strategies designed to mitigate the risk of fomite transmission during the current pandemic response.