French scientists came to the conclusion that the new coronavirus can withstand prolonged exposure to high temperatures. This writes the South China Morning Post.
Professor Remy Sarrel and his colleagues from the University of AIX-Marseille warmed the virus that causes COVID-19 to 60 degrees Celsius within one hour and found that some of its strains are still capable of reproduction.
Scientists had to bring the temperature to near the boiling point, to completely kill the virus. The researchers stressed that these data are important for the safety of technicians working with the virus.
The researchers had infected kidney cells of African green monkey strain isolated from a patient from Berlin. Cells were loaded into the vials, which are two different type of environment – one “clean” and the other “dirty” with the protein of animal origin to simulate biological contamination in real samples such as swab of the mouth.
After heating, the viral strains in a clean environment has been completely decontaminated. However, some strains in “dirty” samples survived.
According to scientists, the process of heating has led to an apparent loss of infectivity, but the infection was still possible. However, the samples are heated to 92 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes did the virus completely inactive.
The work of French scholars has not yet been refereed by independent experts and editors of scientific journals.
Microbiologist studying the coronavirus in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told South China Morning Post that the French experiment gave valuable information, but the situation in real life can be much more complex than laboratory simulations.
As reported by “Rambler” previously, scientists from the University of Hong Kong found that the coronavirus survival on surfaces for an extended period at four degrees Celsius.
At 22 degrees Celsius (room temperature) the virus can be active for up to seven days at 37 degrees for one to two days, and at 56 degrees it disappears within 30 minutes. At a temperature of 70 degrees, according to Chinese experts, the virus can not live for longer than five minutes.
