University of bonn, Public university in Bonn, Germany

London, July 30 While the fear of getting Covid infection from banknotes and coins has driven much more contactless payments during the pandemic, researchers say the risk is far too less.Experts at the European Central Bank, in collaboration with researchers at Ruhr-Universitat Bochum in Germany, wanted to clarify how long do coronaviruses remain infectious on banknotes and coins? Is it possible to become infected through contact with cash?The team treated various euro coins and banknotes with virus solutions of different concentrations and over several days observed how long infectious virus was still detectable. A stainless-steel surface served as a control in each case.While infectious virus was still present on the stainless-steel surface after seven days, on the 10-euro banknote, it took only three days to completely disappear.For the 10-cent, 1-euro, and 5-cent coins after six days, two days and one hour, respectively, no infectious virus was detectable."The rapid decline on the 5-cent piece is because it's made of copper, on which viruses are known to be less stable," explained Daniel Todt, from the varsity's Department of Molecular and Medical Virology.The study was published in the journal iScience.The researchers also developed a new method to study how well the virus is transferred from a surface to the fingertip.They contaminated banknotes, coins and credit-card-like PVC plates with harmless coronaviruses and, under high-security conditions, also with SARS-CoV-2.These surfaces were then touched, while still wet or when already dried, by test subjects with their fingertips or, in the case of SARS-CoV-2, with artificial skin.Cell cultures were then inoculated with the viruses adhering to the fingertips. This allowed the researchers to determine the number of transmitted virus particles that were still infectious."We saw that immediately after the liquid had dried, there was practically no transmission of infectious virus," Todt said."Under realistic conditions, infection with SARS-CoV-2 from cash is very unlikely," he added.Smear infections via surfaces are almost non-existent. The current study was conducted with the Alpha variant of SARS-CoV-2 in addition to the wild-type variant."We assume that other variants, such as the currently predominant Delta variant, also behave similarly," said Eike Steinmann, Professor at the varsity.Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

University Of BonnFOLLOW

University of bonn, Latest News

India men's hockey team defeated Germany to win the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday. This is ... ...

The men's hockey team and grappler Ravi Dahiya will look to win medals on day 13 of the Tokyo Olympics while Vinesh Phogat will also start her campaign at the Games on Thursday. ...

Berlin, Aug 4 A pensioner in Germany has been convicted for possessing illegal weapons after he was found ... ...

The Indian men's hockey team will face Germany in the Bronze medal play-off match on Thursday in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics. ...

Indian equestrian Fouaad Mirza and his horse Seigneur Medicott finished 23rd in the individual eventing jumping and missed out on a medal in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics on Monday. ...

A recent study has discussed the psychological consequences of COVID-19 on healthcare and also highlighted the protective factors that can help people cope with the severe strain caused by the pandemic. ...

A new study shows that a targeted therapy using non-thermal radio waves is safe to use in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer. ...

London, July 30 While the fear of getting Covid infection from banknotes and coins has driven much more ... ...