How Likely Is Fomite Transmission of the Novel Coronavirus?

Recently, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a few changes to its website to improve readability, but those changes made some wonder whether the risk of transmitting the novel coronavirus via inanimate objects was negligible. The CDC released a statement to clarify: “The primary and most important mode of transmission for COVID-19 is through close contact from person-to-person. Based on data from lab studies on COVID-19 and what we know about similar respiratory diseases, it may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this isn’t thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”

This leaves us to wonder, how possible is fomite transmission of the virus? There have been documented fomite-transmitted cases in China, and we have all seen the experiments with the black lights and neon “germs” on social media in which it is simple to see how quickly the virus can spread. The bottom line? Dental practices must operate as if fomite transmission is likely. Read more here.