Omicron Variant Survives Longer On Plastic, Skin Than Previous Covid-19 Coronavirus Versions

Life on plastic may be more fantastic for the Omicron variant. This is not how the “Barbie Girl” song goes. Instead, this possibility is based on a study described by a manuscript recently uploaded to bioRxiv. The study suggested that the Omicron variant of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may survive on plastic and skin significantly longer than earlier versions of the virus can.

Back in 2020, I covered for Forbes studies that showed that the SARS-CoV-2 may remain on various surfaces for longer than a day. Now that was the “original version” of the virus that really began the whole pandemic. Since then, a lot has happened. Toilet paper went and came back, and a whole Greek alphabet collection of variants have subsequently emerged. So before you start nuzzling with that One Direction shrine that you see in your friend’s bathroom, it’s a good idea to get updated on how long subsequent versions of the virus may keep hanging on, in the words of The Supremes and Kim Wilde.

This latest study entailed obtaining samples of the different variants (the original version and the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron variants) from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo, Japan, culturing these samples, and then placing the virus on plastic surfaces and pieces of real human skin. For plastic surfaces, the study used polystyrene plates. For real human skin, rather than choosing a person with rock-paper-scissors to get virus smeared on him or her, the research team used squares of skin cut from human cadavers.

Once the viruses were placed on these surfaces, the research team subsequently repeatedly checked for the presence of the viruses until they could no longer find them. They defined survival time as the duration of time that the virus remained detectable on the plastic surface or skin sample. A team from the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine (Ryohei Hirose, Yoshito Itoh, Hiroshi Ikegaya, Hajime Miyazaki, Naoto Watanabe, Takuma Yoshida, Risa Bandou, Tomo Daidoji, Takaaki Nakaya) conducted the study.

They found that on plastic the original version had the least staying power and the Omicron variant had the most. In fact, the Omicron variant survived nearly four times as long:

• Original version: survived for 56 hours


• Gamma variant: survived for 59.3 hours


• Delta variant: survived for 114 hours


• Beta variant: survived for 156.6 hours


• Alpha variant: survived for 191.3 hours


• Omicron variant: survived for 193.5 hours

As you can see, the Omicron variant survived over 0.73 Scaramuccis with the Alpha variant being the second most hardy, followed by the Beta, Delta, and Gamma variants. The same order was seen on the human skin samples:

• Original version: survived for 8.6 hours


• Gamma variant: survived for 11 hours


• Delta variant: survived for 16.8 hours


• Beta variant: survived for 19.1 hours


• Alpha variant: survived for 19.6 hours


• Omicron variant: survived for 21.1 hours

You can see that the survival times on skin were much lower than they were on plastic.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that if you get the Omicron variant on your skin, you need to remain perfectly still for 21 hours, waiting for the virus to fall apart. Instead, presumably you could wash yourself with soap and water or use some hand sanitizer when soap and water are not available. Similarly, if the virus is on a plastic surface, you could use always disinfectant to clean the surface right? Of course, everyone knows that you shouldn’t ingest or inject yourself with disinfectant. No one would ever suggest such a thing.

Good hand hygiene is still important. (Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images)

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Well, it is always a good idea to double-check such assumptions since the SARS-CoV-2 has mutated along the way. For the study, the research team wanted to make sure that various alcohol-based solutions were still able to readily inactivate different versions of the virus. First, they mixed test tubes containing the SARS-CoV-2 with disinfectants having different ethanol concentrations (80%, 60%, 50%, 40%, 35%, 32.5%, 30%, 27.5%, 25%, 22.5% and 20%) and determined how quickly they could inactivate the different versions of the virus. Disinfectant with 32.5% ethanol was able to completely inactive the original version of the virus and the Gamma variant within 15 seconds. It took a little higher concentration of ethanol (35%) to inactivate the Alpha, Beta, and Delta variants within 15 seconds and an even higher concentration (40%) to do the same for the Omicron variant. This served up more evidence that the Omicron variant seems a bit hardier than previous versions of the virus.

Then the research team tried placing the SARS-CoV-2 on the human skin squares and applying the different alcohol solutions. After all, you and your skin aren’t exactly the same as a test tube. You can do more things like move around, eat hot dogs, and text. Well, for human skin, the research team didn’t find differences among the variants. The 35% ethanol solution was able to completely inactivate all version of the SARS-CoV-2 within 15 seconds.

Granted this study has not yet been peer-reviewed and published in a reputable scientific journal. Therefore, take all these findings with at least 77 grains of salt. Moreover, you are more than a square piece of human skin. You do have more personality.

Nevertheless, this a reminder to continue layering different Covid-19 precautions like you would clothes. You wouldn’t say, “oh, since I am wearing a thong, there’s no need for other clothes.” Even if you were to say that, most likely others would disagree. Similarly, just one Covid-19 precaution like vaccination or face mask wearing alone is not enough. The whole disinfect surfaces and wash-your-hands-while-singing-Happy-Birthday-to-yourself thing may have gotten lost in the shuffle since early 2020. Once studies suggested that a majority of new Covid-19 cases were being caused by airborne transmission, a lot of the focus has shifted to encouraging face mask wearing and better ventilation and air filtration in indoor locations. Then along came vaccination, and some people mistakenly believed that was all that was needed during the pandemic. This led to premature relaxation of other Covid-19 precautions and a lot of disappointment and confusion as is often the case when things are premature.

Just because more cases result airborne transmission doesn’t mean that you can no longer get infected via contaminated surfaces. While you don’t necessarily need to cover everything with disinfectant like you do food with Nutella, it’s still a good idea to wipe down anything that may have been contaminated. It’s still a good idea to wash your hands frequently and thoroughly. It’s still a good idea to make sure you lather up with soap and water while singing through at least the first chorus of the Divinyls song “I Touch Myself.” After all, you do touch yourself each day, a lot, you honestly do.

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