The DU Lounge

Here’s how long [Covid] typically lasts on some common surfaces:

Glass: 5 days.
Wood: 4 days.
Plastic: 3 days.
Stainless-steel: 3 days.
Cardboard: 1 day.
Copper surfaces: 4 hours.

It’s important to know, though that there’s a difference between a virus “lasting” on a surface and a virus “lasting-to-the-point-that-they-can-make-you-sick.”

“We may be able to find some viable virus after a few days, but it’s thousands of times less than what was originally deposited,” Dr. Esper points out. “As soon as the virus hits something that’s not alive and certainly not a human, it’s not going to do very well.”

So, just because the virus is detectable on a surface doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s enough there to infect you. Remember that viruses start to die when they’re not in the body, so the amount of live virus decreases over time on surfaces."