New research finds how coronavirus persists on floor, beds, walls of hospitals treating Covid patients

Concluding the findings of the study, the researchers said that their study was confined to one hospital but the findings would be identical in other Covid-19 hospitals. (Representative image)

Much has been written on how Coronavirus transmits from an infected patient to the surroundings and other vulnerable populations but a new research has shown that the SARS-CoV-2 virus persists on the surface of hospitals for a long time. According to a research published in Microbiome, the virus was found present on several surfaces of the hospital including the beds of patients, floors outside the patients’ ward, surface inside the room among others, the Indian Express reported.

As part of the study, researchers collected the samples from the rooms of the patients before and after the rooms were occupied by patients suffering from Coronavirus. The researchers also collected the swabs from the skin, nose and stool of Covid-19 patients and the health workers treating those patients. Hence over a period of over two months, the researchers collected a total of 972 hospital-associated samples for their research.

The result of the research was on expected lines with the virus present in 39 percent of the total samples collected from the beds of patients, 29 percent of the samples collected from the floor outside patients’ rooms, and from 16 percent of the samples collected from the surface of the patients rooms. The study also found that the highest load of virus was found in the samples collected in the first five days of patients exhibiting symptoms.

The possibility of the virus spreading from the infected surfaces has been documented in previous research as well. However, the researchers of the current study said that presence of the virus on several surfaces did not mean that the virus would be able to infect people also. The researchers further said that the virus primarily spreads from close human interactions with a very rare possibility of infection from the surfaces. Concluding the findings of the study, the researchers said that their study was confined to one hospital but the findings would be identical in other Covid-19 hospitals.