Sunlight kills coronavirus 8 times faster than predicted, says a new research study on SARS-CoV-2 virus
Web Desk
TORONTO: There is more good news on the COVID-19 pandemic front.
New search shows that sunlight can kill the coronavirus in 10-20 minutes.
We know that the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) can survives for days in winter. It can survive up to 72 hours on plastic and stainless steel, up to four hours on copper, and up to 24 hours on cardboard.
Lab experiments in July 2020 using ultra-violet (UV)-B rays on the virus found that it could be inactivated in under 20 minutes.
Now new research has found that coronaviruses can die even quicker when exposed to direct sunlight.
In a letter to the Journal of Infectious Diseases, UC Santa Barbara mechanical engineering professor and lead research author Paolo Luzzatto-Fegiz says that the virus can be deactivated in 10-20 minutes in sunlight.
How?
The sunlight contains three kinds of ultra-violet rays. Most powerful short-range UV-C rays, less powerful mid-range UV-B rays and least powerful UV-A rays.
Since UV-C rays don’t reach us as they are deflected away by the earht’s ozone layer, the sunlight reaching us has only UV-A rays and UV-B rays.
Since the new research shows that sunlight kills coronavirus faster that the UV-B experiement last July, it means sunlight UV-A rays must be interacting with the coronavirus more powerfully and destroying it.
It means UV-A emitters installed in air filtration systems can help stop the spread of the virus.
