FACT: Covid-19 won’t survive longer than nine days on textiles
Rodgers Odhiambo and Celine Abuga
05/08/2020
FACT: Covid-19 won’t survive longer than nine days on textiles
Kenyan officials are under pressure to rescind a ban on imports of second-hand clothes, popularly known in the country as “mitumba” which was stopped from being imported in the country by the government due to the Covid 19 pandemic which was reported in March 2020
In 2019 the country imported 184,555 tones of second-hand clothing with an estimated value of KSh17.8 billion, according to official data. It was one of the country’s top 20 imports.
Second-hand clothes dealers have criticized the ban as harsh, arguing that imported garments do not pose a public health risk.
“The latest scientific advice indicates that the importation of second-hand garments and shoes into Kenya poses no credible public health risk,” said Teresia Njenga, the chairperson of the Mitumba Association of Kenya.
This is because the goods are shipped “for 45 days on average” and in “sealed containers,” she told reporters in July 2020.
“The scientific evidence concludes that the Covid-19 virus cannot survive on an inanimate object for more than nine days. Additionally, in the period since March, the World Health Organization has not prohibited the movement of goods or commodities as a measure to contain the spread of Covid-19,” Njenga said.
According to April 2020 guidance by the World Health Organization, or WHO, the survival of the virus “on surfaces is similar to that of SARS-CoV1, the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars)”. This ranges from two hours to nine days.
Dr Vincent Munster, chief of the virus ecology unit at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, co-authored an April 2020 paper, Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1.
The paper found that SARS-CoV-2 remained viable for similar durations as SARS-CoV-1, the virus which causes Sars.
Munster told Africa Check that there was “no risk associated with the importation of these or other goods”. This is because “typically SARS-CoV-2 cannot survive more than one or two days”.
This message is brought to you by Sky fm in collaboration with Code For Africa’s iLab Data Journalism Program supported by DW Akademie
