Coronavirus: USPS employee in Washington state tests positive for virus

[Roland99]

https://www.wftv.com/news/trending/coronavirus-usps-employee-washington-state-tests-positive-virus/H5FBZ33ZUBAANEZLK4TCPG3XD4/

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — KIRO-TV found out Saturday evening that a Seattle area U.S. Postal Service employee tested positive for the coronavirus.

A corporate communications spokesperson said the employee works at a Seattle Network Distribution Center located in Federal Way, Washington.

The Network Distribution Center is a mail processing plant that distributes USPS marketing mail and package services in piece and bulk form and does not handle letter mail. No mail is delivered from the facility.

The spokesperson said USPS has been consulting with the county health department and was informed that the risk to other employees is low.

Hope they nip this in the bud

[captain queeg]

1. Great

We need some actual facts pretty quick or hysteria will take off. Anyone want to bet on tomorrow’s stock market?

[Zoonart]

2. At USPS in NYS yesterday.

All employees were gloved.

[captain queeg]

5. Probably had to buy their own.

[Ms. Toad]

3. They did not exclude contact with the marketing mail and packages

And I haven't been able to find how long the virus lives on paper.

It bothers me that the announcement seemed cleverly worded to exclude the possibility that the infected person touched marketing mail (as opposed to letter mail) or packages, without flat out stating it. If you could truthfully state it, why wouldn't you?

[Eyeball_Kid]

4. A DU poster wrote that the virus...

... can last as long as NINE DAYS on an inanimate object. I have not verified this information.

[Ms. Toad]

6. The number is 9 days.

I'm at least one of the posters who has been citing that number. Here's one reference to the study: https://www.contagionlive.com/contributor/saskia-v-popescu/2020/02/the-persistence-of-sarscov2-on-inanimate-surfaces

That said, the duration will vary depending on the surface. Some surfaces are better for sustaining virus life than others. I haven't found any specifically discussing how long it lives on paper.

[dewsgirl]

8. 9 days does seem to be the consensus.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. From what I've read, the very long survival times for the virus are

essentially outliers. Most of the time the virus dies within a few hours.
It seems to me that if it were getting on currency, as has been suggested, it would have spread much farther and infected vastly more people by now.

[Ms. Toad]

9. Not really.

The average persistence is more like 5 days. The range was 2 hours to 9 days.

https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(20)30046-3/fulltext#sec3.1

There's a chart in the middle of the page - they seem to be basing the results on tests of HCoV-229E (not the specific coronavirus involved here, but the same family), in combination wtih SARS-CoV adn MERS-CoV.

Of the 13 surfaces tested, only 5 surfaces were generally safe within 8 hours or fewer. 9 days is longer than average (plastic), but the average is days (~5) not a few hours.