The new variant of the corona virus, Omicron, is spreading rapidly and now scientists have discovered the reason. He says that Omicron survives longer on skin and plastic than other variants of Corona.
Tokyo: The answer to the question of how long the new variant of Coronavirus, Omicron lives, has now been found. A study by Japanese researchers has claimed that Omicron can survive longer on skin and plastic than earlier variants of corona such as alpha, beta, delta and gamma.
so fast spreading omicron
According to the news published in our partner website WION, it has been claimed in the research that the Omicron variant of Coronavirus can survive on the skin for 21 hours and on plastic surfaces for more than eight days. Researchers say that this is the reason why this variant of corona is spreading faster than the rest.
far ahead of the original variant
Researchers from Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in Japan analyzed differences in viral environmental stability among the SARS-CoV-2 strains. The alpha, beta, delta and Omicron variants appeared to survive more than twice as long on plastic and skin surfaces as compared to their main strain, according to research to be posted recently on the preprint repository BioRxiv .
so many hours on the plastic surface
Researchers say that the virus’s survival on the surface for a long time contributes to its spread. According to him, the original strain of the virus was able to survive for 56 hours, alpha strain 191.3 hours, beta 156.6 hours, gamma 59.3 hours and delta variant 114 hours on plastic surfaces. At the same time, the latest variant of the corona virus, Omicron, can survive for 193.5 hours.
Such is the case with the skin
At the same time, in the research regarding the survival of the virus on the skin, it has been told that the original strain of corona virus survives for 8.6 hours, alpha 19.6 hours, beta 19.1 hours, gamma 11 hours, delta 16.8 hours and Omicron variant 21.1 hours. According to the researchers, there was no significant difference in survival time between the alpha and beta variants and they had similar environmental stability, which is consistent with the results of previous studies.
Use of sanitizers is necessary
The researchers also analyzed the effectiveness of ethanol-based sanitizers on variants of the corona. It was found that the alpha, beta, delta and omicron variants showed a slight increase in resistance to ethanol in response to increased environmental stability. Whereas on the surface of the skin, all VOCs were completely inactivated by a 15-second exposure to 35 percent ethanol. Therefore, it is very important to keep cleaning hands with sanitizer to avoid infection.
