TORONTO -- The consensus among health experts has been that the public shouldn鈥檛 be too worried about catching the virus that causes COVID-19 through surface contact.
But with the SARS-CoV-2 variants becoming more widespread, is this still the case?
Dr. Dominik Mertz, who is an associate professor in McMaster University鈥檚 Department of Medicine and director of its division of infectious diseases, told CTVNews.ca on Tuesday morning over the phone that the risk of surface transmission of the virus continues to be very low.
鈥淚 think we鈥檝e learned since the very beginning that more of that surface transmission isn鈥檛 as important as we initially have assumed, just based on the fact that we didn鈥檛 know an awful lot about the virus when it all started,鈥 said Mertz. 鈥淚 would say that by the beginning of spring, end of summer, we started to realize that surfaces in particular are probably quite negligible of a risk.鈥
That low level of risk appears to still be the case today, despite the spread of the new virus variants, which have been far more infectious than the original strain.
鈥淭here鈥檚 certainly concerns that they spread more easily,鈥 said Mertz.
Because the chance of surface transmission is already so low, the new variants don鈥檛 make much of a difference.
鈥淟et鈥檚 say (a variant) increases the risk of transmission by 50 per cent. If the baseline risk of getting infected through a surface is at, let鈥檚 say one per cent as an arbitrary number 鈥 it doesn鈥檛 make an awful lot of difference that it鈥檚 now at 1.5 per cent,鈥 Mertz explained.
But while the risk remains low, Mertz says it鈥檚 been difficult for health experts to communicate this to the public.
鈥淭he challenge is that 鈥 nobody would say it鈥檚 zero risk. And I keep saying, whatever we do, unless we hide in one room and don鈥檛 have contact with anything, it won鈥檛 be zero risk,鈥 said Mertz. 鈥淏ut in my mind, it鈥檚 a negligible risk.鈥
To add to the confusion, numerous studies have made headlines, finding that the coronavirus could be viable on surfaces for hours and sometimes days. For example, a study published last month found that virus could survive on some fabrics for 72 hours. In October, another study found that the virus could survive on bank notes for at least 28 days.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e very concerning studies, let me put it that way,鈥 said Mertz.
Mertz says these studies are often conducted only in a controlled laboratory environment and don鈥檛 necessarily reflect how the virus spends in the real world.
鈥淲ill that potentially viable virus on that surface eventually result in infections? We don鈥檛 have the evidence that it happens,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hat means it probably happens very rarely but it鈥檚 nothing that we would be able to pick up as a very important mode of transmission.
That means you purchased something from a store in-person, Mertz says you probably don鈥檛 need to wipe it down with Lysol.
鈥淚f you are out and about and you are touching a lot of things where someone might have sneezed on or whatever, just clean your hands afterwards,鈥 said Mertz 鈥淎s long as you clean your hands before you touch your mouth and eyes, nothing is going to happen. It doesn鈥檛 matter how contaminated the surface would potentially be."
