Now more than ever, it has become increasingly important to keep stuff clean. All types of stuff, including hands, faces and the things you touch on a daily basis. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, humans have been forced to take responsibility, and now it’s your responsibility to clean your smartphone more often.

Remember how the virus that causes COVID-19 can stay alive on most surfaces for an extended period of time? Turns out that’s especially true for our favourite gadgets: smartphones. According to researchers from Australia’s national science agency, the COVID-19 virus can stay alive on smartphones and paper money for longer than the flu virus. Now, if that’s not petrifying, we don’t know what is.

Your phone’s a virus carrier

After the study, the researchers found that the coronavirus can remain alive and well on a smartphone screen for up to 28 days. We have to mention that the study was conducted in a strict, controlled environment, but, under these same conditions, influenza only lasts 17 days on cellphone surfaces.

Turns out the COVID-19 virus is extremely robust, or at least that’s what the team of scientists found. “These findings demonstrate SARS-CoV-2 can remain infectious for significantly longer time periods than generally considered possible,” the study concludes.

Lucky for us, however, the strict conditions the scientists had the virus flourish in was complete darkness at a constant 20 degrees Celcius. So unless you’re gonna leave your phone in complete darkness for a month in a temperature-controlled room, you should be fine. Still, though, make sure to clean that phone properly every few days, just to be safe.

Source: Engadget