Harbourt DE, Haddow AD, Piper AE, et al. Modeling the stability of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on skin, currency, and clothing. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2020;14(11):e0008831. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008831 Not everyone has a washing machine in their home. However, those who use laundry facilities can still follow the guidelines listed above. Medical News Today has strict sourcing guidelines and draws only from peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We avoid using tertiary references. We link primary sources — including studies, scientific references, and statistics — within each article and also list them in the resources section at the bottom of our articles. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy. The material was described as polyester, & they weren’t wrong about that. I would have described it as plastic & horrible. Precautions, such as physical distancing, quarantining, and self-isolating, can help reduce the risk of direct transmission. However, respiratory droplets can fall on objects and surfaces. SARS-CoV-2 can enter a person’s body if they touch these surfaces and then touch their eyes, nose, or mouth.

Their results indicated that after about three days, the polyester posed the highest risk for virus transmission, since the sample of the HCoV-OC43 virus remained present and transmissible to other surfaces past 72 hours. They also reported that the virus remained infectious for 3–7 days on glass, stainless steel, and plastic surfaces, and less than 2 days on wood and cloth. Their findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 is highly sensitive to heat. After increasing the temperature to 70°C (158°F), the virus became inactive within 5 minutes.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Interim guidance for products including or adding efficacy claims for use on porous materials in non-residential settings. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Science brief: SARS-CoV-2 and surface (fomite) transmission for indoor community environments. Later this year, IFTNA plans to launch a laundry product people can use to apply its antiviral chemical to their clothes at home, and by 2021, it will debut its own Underit line of Protex-treated activewear, like jogging pants and sports bras. Protex-treated fabrics, he says, offer an additional measure of safety and peace of mind. “It’s not like you have to remember to put hand sanitizer on every two minutes,” he says. He adds, “I’m sure the material does inactivate the virus, but if so, so what? You’d still get [COVID-19] the way everyone else is getting COVID-19.”

By taking their uniforms home, workers run the risk of contaminating their home environment, including the washing machine, because unlike in-house or industrial laundries, there is no segregation of laundry based on designated soiled and clean areas,” she noted . “If nurses and healthcare workers take their uniforms home, they could be leaving traces of the virus on other surfaces.”

An Infectious Disease Specialist Weighs ln

Even if COVID-19-fighting apparel begins flooding stores, the protection trifecta of mask wearing, hand washing, and social distancing recommended by infectious disease specialists won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. The best-case scenario for antiviral fabrics is that they might offer another weapon in the arsenal. Geng Y, Wang Y. Stability and transmissibility of SARS‐CoV‐2 in the environment. Journal of Medical Virology. 2023;95(1):e28103. doi:10.1002/jmv.28103