The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appears to have changed its advice on how the novel coronavirus is transmitted, posting on its website recently the germ "does not spread easily" from touching contaminated surfaces or objects, Fox News reported.
The new language appears on the CDC's website under a heading of "surfaces and objects" indicating ways in which the virus is not readily transmitted. It is a change from early March when the federal agency posted that it "may be possible" to contract the virus from a contaminated surface, according to Fox News.
"COVID-19 is a new disease and we are still learning about how it spreads," the CDC website reads. "It may be possible for COVID-19 to spread in other ways, but these are not thought to be the main ways the virus spreads."
Although not completely contradicting the information that had people frequently or regularly wiping surfaces and objects with disinfectant, Fox News quoted Dr. John Whyte, the chief medical officer for the healthcare website WebMD, as saying the new information might put more people at ease.
"It also may help reduce anxiety and stress," he said. "Many people were concerned that by simply touching an object they may get coronavirus and that's simply not the case. Even when a virus may stay on a surface, it doesn't mean that it's actually infectious."
The initial warning came after a study in March published in the medRxiv depository suggested the virus that causes COVID-19 could remain suspended in the air for three hours and live on surfaces such as plastic and stainless steel for as long as three days.
The CDC reiterated the ways in which it said the coronavirus was primarily spread, most commonly person-to-person, between those within about 6 feet of one another, through droplets when someone coughs, sneezes or talks, and by people who might not have flu-like symptoms.
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