Covid-19: Viruses can stay alive in vehicle bodies and mirrors for up to 3 days

Alcohol gel, mask, social isolation. Although all of this is already part of the new normal, cleaning the cars also needs to be to prevent contagion from the Covid-19. Is that, according to a survey by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) – an institution linked to the Ministry of Health and which operates in the area of ​​science and technology in health in Latin America -, the new coronavirus can remain for up to three days, or 72 hours, on metallic and plastic surfaces, which includes a large area on the outside of cars, such as bodywork and mirrors.

Therefore, maintaining vehicle hygiene avoids the proliferation of the virus. That’s what alerts the CEO of WOW Clean Car in 3 minutes, carwash franchise, Felipe Boell. “Vehicles deserve the same attention given to other items that we take to our home and that can transmit the disease. Many people are attentive to door handles or elevator buttons, hand hygiene after this contact, or the cleaning of purchases and other inputs, for example, forgetting that they have no control over who touches their vehicles, for example, in a parking lot ”, warns the CEO.

Attention to vehicles is important, especially when we realize that many people took their cars out of the garage during the pandemic, avoiding public transportation, precisely to avoid crowds and being infected. Just to give you an idea, according to data from the National Association of Transport Companies (NTE), only in the first six months of the pandemic did bus companies accumulate a loss of almost R $ 4 billion. “The concern with car hygiene must accompany its more intense use”, emphasizes Boell.

But, most are unaware of the dangers lurking in their vehicles. An example is the purchasing manager Junior Say: “I go to the service with my car, I leave it in the open parking lot, with people passing by and it is really vulnerable. At home, I keep the car in the garage, which gives direct and free access to my kitchen. And my son, who is only two, can leave the kitchen and go to the car. It is a very close danger and sometimes it can touch the car and we can’t even see. When I learned that the car is an active transmitter of the virus, I was concerned ”, he says.