The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 may survive for several days on some surfaces. Estimates of its life span vary, but the virus can clearly hang around long enough to make disinfecting frequently touched surfaces a priority.
How to use common disinfecting products
When disinfecting a surface, by far the most important consideration is what’s known as dwell time: the amount of time the disinfectant needs to remain on a surface to kill pathogens, and in this case, specifically the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. No disinfectant works instantly; most of those sold to the public take several minutes. Different dwell times don’t indicate that one disinfectant is more or less effective than another. They’re just how long products take to eliminate the coronavirus, the result you want. But dwell time is not the only thing you need to pay attention to.
