A recent study found that coronavirus can also survive on shoes, raising concerns about hospital staff’s shoes. Although virus concentrations were highest in ICU wards, general wards (even those not treating coronavirus patients) also reported positive test results.
Researchers said the positive rate for COVID-19 was fairly high compared to other virus floor samples. The authors theorized this in the study because of gravity and airflow causing most virus droplets to fall to the bottom.
Can Coronavirus Spread Through Your Shoes?
The study also showed that when medical staff walks across the hospital, the virus can be tracked around the building, as shown by the pharmacy’s 100% positive rate from the building where there were no patients so it shows that Coronavirus can also survive on shoes. Coronavirus can also survive on shoes
Half of the ICU medical workers shoe samples tested positive. Researchers concluded that medical staff shoe soles could act as carriers.
In the study’s publication in the Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, the authors strongly recommended that people wash shoe soles before walking outwards with COVID-19 patients.
The research examined two hospitals in Wuhan, China, from February 19-2. Samples were obtained from indoor air, walls, clothing, computer mice, trashcans, sickbed handrails, personal protective equipment (PPE) and other surfaces.
