How long does coronavirus last on a sink? On an Amazon box? Early test results are in

Tests show the COVID-19 virus can be detected after up to three days on some surfaces, and hours in the air, a new study reports.

The research was performed at the National Institutes of Health’s Rocky Mountain Lab in Montana by scientists from several universities.

Using a nebulizer, researchers puffed samples of the COVID-19 virus into the air and measured how long they could be detected in the air and on various surfaces, the study says.

Scientists found the virus could be detected for up to three hoursin the air, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel, according to the study.

While medical experts have offered estimates on how long the new COVID-19 virus might remain viable based on other coronaviruses, specific answers on the new virus are critical to figuring out to protect against it, the study says.

“It’s a solid piece of work that answers questions people have been asking,” said Julie Fischer, a microbiology professor at Georgetown University, the Associated Press reports.

But researchers emphasize they did not examine whether the virus remains infectious in the air or on various surfaces, the study says. They only tested for detection at this point.

More than 487,000 cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed worldwide with more than 22,000 deaths as of March 26, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 69,000 confirmed cases with more than 1,000 deaths.

The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a global pandemic.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health, Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles, conducted the study. It was funded by the U.S. government and National Science Foundation.

The study has been published in the The New England Journal of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health announced Tuesday.

This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 2:00 PM with the headline "How long does coronavirus last on a sink? On an Amazon box? Early test results are in."