UNLIKELY DELIVERY
Chances against coronavirus arriving with packages shipped from China
Rising fears over the spread of the novel coronavirus are making some consumers hesitate to buy items shipped directly from China, but medical experts say the likelihood of contracting the illness via international packages is slim.
“It could be a small risk,” said Davidson Hamer, an infectious diseases specialist from Boston University.
Research is ongoing into how long the novel coronavirus originating from Wuhan, China, can linger on surfaces — raising concerns about its longevity on packing material and products shipped from the country at the epicenter of the outbreak.
But experts are taking cues from studies on the staying power of similar coronaviruses, including Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
A Feb. 6 Journal of Hospital Infection paper looking at the amount of time coronaviruses such as SARS persisted on various surfaces concluded that human coronaviruses can last on inanimate surfaces for up to nine days.
The potential for a coronavirus to last four or five days on paper or on a cardboard box is “a little worrisome” for receiving shipments from a Chinese producer, Hamer said.
“If the person handling the package is sneezing and coughing and has coronavirus, maybe it could get contaminated,” Hamer said. “But the likelihood is quite small.”
Disinfecting with common household cleaners can help, research shows.
The Centers for Disease Control said coronaviruses are most often spread by respiratory droplets, such as through coughing or sneezing.
While it’s not clear how similarly the novel coronavirus acts to SARS and MERS, the CDC said “in general, because of poor survivability of these coronaviruses on surfaces, there is likely very low risk of spread from products or packaging that are shipped over a period of days or weeks at ambient temperatures.”
Amazon, the online retail giant that imports huge quantities of goods from China, said via a spokeswoman, “We are following guidance from the World Health Organization that indicates it is safe to handle and receive packages from China.”
WHO says on its website “it is safe” to receive packages from China and people who do so “are not at risk of contracting the new coronavirus. From previous analysis, we know coronaviruses do not survive long on objects, such as letters or packages.”
Tufts University professor Nahid Bhadelia, an infectious diseases physician and medical director of Special Pathogens Unit at Boston University’s School of Medicine, said given the novel coronavirus’s similarities to SARS,
“we can estimate that the virus probably doesn’t survive more than a couple of days on dry, flat surfaces” such as the outer part of packages.
She added, “Even in the highly unlikely setting that there is any virus left on a surface of a package, I believe it is unlikely to cause infection.”