In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it felt like the virus was everywhere — and on everything.
Some people washed their mail or wore gloves to the grocery store, while policymakers cordoned off playgrounds and encouraged businesses to scrub every surface.
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But as the months passed, scientific consensus began to crystallize, suggesting some of those precautions might be missing the bigger picture of how the SARS-CoV-2 virus transmits.
The main way people get infected, most leading public health officials and scientists now agree, is through exposure to this virus through the air, not through contaminated surfaces known scientifically as “fomites.”
Yet Omicron, the highly contagious variant known for slipping around some of our best defences, might be surviving longer on everyday objects than its early predecessor — raising questions about which basic precautions to prevent surface-based transmission might still be warranted.
That’s a key finding from a new pre-print paper from researchers at the University of Hong Kong’s school of public health, which is published online but has not yet been peer-reviewed.
After conducting lab-based research, the team found Omicron “is more stable than the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 on different surfaces.”
“Our findings imply that (Omicron) has an increased likelihood to be transmitted by the fomite route,” the researchers concluded.
“Hand hygiene and frequent disinfection of common touch surfaces in public areas are highly recommended.”
In the early days of the pandemic, some people washed their mail or wore gloves to the grocery store, while policymakers cordoned off playgrounds and encouraged businesses to scrub every surface. (Etienne Laurent/EPA/Shutterstock)
‘More evidence is needed’
Building off other recent research which showed Omicron’s heavily-mutated spike protein is more stable than the ancestral strain, and their own previous findings on SARS-CoV-2’s level of infectiousness on various surfaces, the Hong Kong team explored what would happen if droplets containing Omicron — the BA.1 lineage, specifically — were applied to surfaces like stainless steel, paper, and glass.
In each instance, infectious amounts of Omicron were recovered for longer amounts of time than the samples of the original virus.
On several types of paper, infectious amounts of ancestral SARS-CoV-2 were only recoverable for five to 15 minutes — compared to more than 30 minutes for Omicron.
On smooth surfaces, Omicron lasted more than a week, while infectious amounts of the original virus were recovered up to just four days on polypropylene plastic and stainless and up to seven days on glass.
“More evidence is needed to account for the increased transmissibility of (Omicron) observed in various community studies,” the researchers wrote.
“The extra virus stability on surfaces may be one possible factor and should be taken into consideration when recommending control measures against the infection.”
Linsey Marr, a researcher on the airborne transmission of viruses like SARS-CoV-2 and a professor at Virginia Tech, agreed that the results show Omicron seems to survive better, which could be contributing to its heightened transmissibility.
“This might affect the balance of transmission routes favouring more fomite transmission than we saw before,” she said.
But Marr stressed the study’s conditions don’t reflect real-world scenarios. The volume of droplets used in the lab research — five microlitres — might sound small, but it’s “actually huge compared to droplets we usually spew out,” she said.
That means the exact timings might not pan out for people living their daily lives, though Marr did feel the comparison between the ancestral virus and Omicron was notable.
WATCH | Omicron surge triggers new lockdowns in China:
China locks down cities to stop Omicron surge
2 days ago
Duration 2:00
Millions of people in China have been forced into lockdown, ordered to stay home to protect themselves from the country’s biggest COVID-19 outbreak in two years. 2:00
Virus ‘fragile’ outside controlled settings
Other members of the scientific and medical community also had mixed views on what this new study actually tells us about how Omicron spreads.
Emanuel Goldman, a microbiology professor at the New Jersey Medical School of Rutgers University, said in an article published in The Lancet journal in 2020 that the risk of COVID-19 infection from surfaces at that time was “exaggerated.”
When asked about the new Hong Kong results, he said any findings based on the “same old techniques” in a laboratory don’t change that, since figuring out transmission is about more than just how viruses survive within controlled settings.
“You’re never going to find that much virus in a small area that you touch,” he said.
“The virus is fragile; these mutations haven’t changed that. It’s still going to die very quickly in the environment.”
‘Hand hygiene and frequent disinfection of common touch surfaces in public areas are highly recommended,’ say a team of Hong Kong researchers. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Arinjay Banerjee, a virologist working with the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, echoed that.
“Doing experiments inside a lab where humidity is controlled is one thing. Applying that to real life is an entirely different thing,” he said.
Sunlight and humidity, for instance, can both contribute to how long viruses are able to survive on surfaces outdoors, he noted.
The study authors themselves did note the limitations at play, including the controlled, lab-based setting and differences in the droplets used in the research compared to respiratory droplets, which may all impact the stability of the virus.
It’s also not clear exactly how much virus is needed for a productive SARS-CoV-2 infection, Banerjay said, with more research needed.
Even so, he said the findings suggest it’s worth being cautious.
“I think we shouldn’t drop our guard against SARS-CoV-2, period.”
Hand washing, basic cleaning still matter, experts say
So what’s the takeaway for Canadians who are trying to navigate a reopening society while mitigating the risk of falling ill with COVID-19?
“We’ve been so focused on airborne transmission and masks that, maybe, we’ve kind of neglected to wash our hands,” Marr said.
Dr. Gerald Evans, chair of the division of infectious diseases at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., agreed that alongside other personal protections like mask-wearing and vaccinations, basic hand hygiene remains a smart way to ward off this virus.
Regular sanitization of toys and other items in daycares and schools where children are at play may also be helpful, Dr. Gerald Evans said. (Robert Short/CBC)
Regular sanitization of toys and other items in daycares and schools where children are at play may also be helpful, he said, given how often kids put items directly in their mouths.
But he warned the public not to panic, and avoid resorting to heavy-handed precautions.
“If you wash your hands — not obsessively, but just thoughtfully and carefully — that’s going to reduce any transmission you see out there,” Evans said.
“Certainly I don’t want to see people going back to wiping their groceries down with disinfectants and leaving things sitting for days on end in the hope that what virus might be there isn’t going to infect them. We know that this is not in any shape, manner, or form a major transmission route for this virus.”
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HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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