LITTLE HOPE: SOMETHING IS HIDING IN THE DARK
Little Hope tells about four college students and their teacher who were trapped in the abandoned town of Little Hope. Cut off from the world, stuck in this city without hope of escape, they are desperately trying to escape from the nightmarish creatures of horror that haunt them in an impenetrable fog.
Read more...
Unlocking The Past with a fossil hunt spanning decades. Which peculiar dinosaur took so long to identify? Find out in our latest article.
More wedding gowns at bit.ly/weddingi
March 25, 2020, 12:15 p.m. — Handwashing and surface sanitization are a critical part of preventing the transmission of COVID-19, but how worried do you need to be that you’ll pick up the virus from a piece of mail, or an apple from the grocery store?
A study out last week by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the CDC, and colleagues looked at how long the COVID-19 virus survives on a variety of different surfaces. They found that it survives for:
It’s important to understand what aerosols mean in this context. Aerosols are particles that are smaller than 5 micrometers in diameter — one-twentieth of a millimeter. When a person coughs or sneezes, most of the particles are droplets, which are particles larger than 5 micrometers in diameter. These larger particles tend to settle very quickly. Aerosols can hang around in the air longer, but under most environmental conditions, they, too, tend to settle to the ground rapidly.
Most experts think the primary route of infection for COVID-19 is via direct exposure from an infected person — that is, if someone with the virus coughs or sneezes while you’re in close proximity. For most people, this means that taking appropriate precautions, such as staying at least 6 feet away from other people, should be sufficient to prevent infection.
It’s also thought that touching a contaminated surface and touching your face could lead to an infection, which is why handwashing with soap and water or use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers are effective against the virus.
So do you need to be sanitizing your mail before opening it? Probably not; the CDC says there’s a low risk of transmission by packages and mail shipped over a period of days or weeks. While it’s possible that a delivery person dropping a package off at your house could contaminate it, experts say that the risk of transmission is still low. If you’re concerned, you can let the package sit for 24 hours before opening it, or just open the package outside, immediately discard the box and wash your hands thoroughly.
Because COVID-19 can survive for longer on non-porous surfaces, such as plastic and stainless steel, it’s important to use good hygiene and sanitization practices in your household, especially when bringing new items into the house. Wipe down counters and sinks, table tops, faucet handles, door knobs and light switches, keyboards and laptops, and frequently handled items like your keys and phone using an appropriate product. Learn more about what cleaning products can kill COVID-19.
People at highest risk of interacting with contaminated aerosols and surfaces are health care workers, which is why it’s important to reserve personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks and gloves for their use. Health care workers are at higher risk of exposure to contaminated aerosols and medical equipment while they are working hard to treat patients, often in very close quarters. Wearing proper PPE helps protect them from the virus so they can continue to treat sick patients as they come in.
If you have any PPE to donate, including items like medical-grade surgical masks, surgical gloves and gowns, goggles, and face shields, visit health.ucsd.edu/covid-donate to set up an appointment to drop them off at UC San Diego Health. If you don’t have appropriate PPE, you can make a financial donation to support the UC San Diego COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.
For the latest information, please visit health.ucsd.edu/COVID
— Alison Caldwell, PhD, Bigelow Science Communication Fellow
