The Omicron variant of coronavirus can survive for a longer time, compared to earlier strains, on plastic surfaces and human skin, suggests new research conducted by researchers at the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine.

The study, yet to be peer-reviewed, noted that the variant survived much longer than the original strain after a series of laboratory tests. Researchers revealed that on plastic and skin surfaces, Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants had over two-fold longer survival times compared to the Wuhan strain and maintained infectivity for over 16 hours on the skin surface. On plastic surfaces, the average survival times of the original strain and the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants were 56 hours, 191.3 hours, 156.6 hours, 59.3 hours, and 114 hours, respectively. The figure for Omicron was 193.5 hours, or about eight days. On skin samples collected from cadavers, average virus survival times were 8.6 hours, 19.6 hours, 19.1 hours, 11 hours, 16.8 hours, and 21.1 hours, for the original strain, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron variants, respectively.

Omicron’s high stability in the environment and its capability to remain infectious might have helped it replace Delta and spread more rapidly, noted researchers… (Euronews – Reuters, January 24, 2022)