The Corona Omicron variant can stay on the skin for more than 21 hours, and up to eight days on plastic surfaces. Most likely this contributed to its faster spread compared to other types.
The claim is the result of a study at the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan. The researchers analyzed differences in viral environmental stability between the Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 strain and all variants of concern (VOC).
The study found that the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants exhibited more than twice as long survival on plastic surfaces and skin as the Wuhan strain.
"The high environmental stability of these VOCs may increase the risk of contact transmission and contribute to its spread," the study authors were quoted as saying by NDTV.
"This study shows that Omicron has the highest environmental stability among other VOCs, which may be one of the factors that allowed it to replace the Delta variant and spread rapidly," they said.
The study showed, on plastic surfaces, the mean survival time of the original strain for 56 hours, the Alpha variant for 191.3 hours, the Beta variant for 156.6 hours, the Gamma variant for 59.3 hours, the Delta variant for 114 hours, and the Omicron variant for 193.5 hours.
While in skin samples, the average viral survival time was 8.6 hours for the original version, 19.6 hours for Alpha, 19.1 hours for Beta, 11 hours for Gamma, 16.8 hours for Delta and 21.1 hours for Omicron.
"There was no significant difference in survival time between the Alpha and Beta variants, and they had similar environmental stability, which is consistent with the results of previous studies," the researchers said.
Although the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants showed a slight increase in ethanol resistance in response to increased environmental stability, all VOCs on the skin surface were completely inactivated by exposure to 35% ethanol for 15 s.
"Therefore, it is strongly recommended that current infection control practices, in terms of hand hygiene, use disinfectants. As proposed by the World Health Organization," the researchers added.
The Omicron variant is currently of major concern due to the rapid increase in the number of infected patients worldwide.