Omicron can survive longer on plastic surfaces and on human skin than previous variants of the coronavirus, according to Japanese scientists who conducted comparative laboratory experiments.
The researchers, led by Dr. Riohei Hiroshe of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Kyoto Medical University, who did the pre-publication on medRxiv, according to Reuters, found that on plastic surfaces, up to 193,5 , 56 hours, compared to 191,3 hours for the original Whan of China, 156,6 hours of Alpha, 59,3 hours of Beta, 114 hours of Gamma and XNUMX hours of Delta.
On human skin samples the mean survival time was 8,6 hours for the original strain, 19,6 hours for the Alpha, 19,1 hours for the Beta, 11 hours for the Gamma, 16,8 hours for the Delta and 21,1 , 15 hour for Omicron. However, on the skin all the variants -including Omicron- were completely inactivated after being exposed for XNUMX seconds to alcohol-based hand sanitizer, which advocates the use of such products.
The researchers spoke of "high environmental stability" and the ability of Omicron to remain contagious, possibly helping to replace the Delta as the world's leading variant.