Researchers testing the stability of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and Influenza A virus on various surfaces found coronavirus survived approximately 9 hours on human skin samples while the flu virus survived less than 2 hours.
This study shows that the SARS-CoV-2 could survive on human skin for up to 9 hours, and thus there is a risk of contact transmission. The survival of the coronavirus on the skin is significantly longer than the flu virus making its spread a more significant public health problem.
