(Fortune) Researchers from Australia’s national science agency CSIRO have found that the COVID-19 coronavirus can survive on certain surfaces—such as banknotes and phone screens—for up to 28 days, roughly seven times longer than previous experiments suggested.
“These findings demonstrate SARS-CoV-2 can remain infectious for significantly longer time periods than generally considered possible. These results could be used to inform improved risk mitigation procedures to prevent the fomite spread of COVID-19,” the researchers wrote in their conclusion, published last week in Virology Journal. (A fomite is an inanimate object contaminated by an infectious agent.)