As more and more businesses around California and the rest of the country start to reopen, a local LA TV station, found that a third of the 25 surfaces they swabbed for COVID-19 came up positive.
The team tested surfaces in Orange County, in movie theaters, stores, restaurants and a freshly reopened mall. They used a test kit made by Phylagen, which says the tests don’t tell whether or not the virus is alive or dead at the time of the swabbing, only whether it’s present or not. They add that a positive hit does indicate that someone with the virus has exhaled or coughed infectious droplets on the area.
"Eventually [those droplets are] going to land on a surface. And then you can test that surface to see whether or not you had active shedders in that space," Phylagen CEO Dr. Jessica Green told NBC4.
Investigators found the virus on a bathroom door handle at a Smart and Final store in Santa Ana, on a bathroom door at a CVS Pharmacy on Main Street in Santa Ana, a bathroom stall handle at an Olive Garden in Santa Ana, on an escalator handrail, and on elevator buttons near a food court.
"Someone could get infected if that virus were infectious and they touched their eyes, their nose, or their mouth," De St. Maurice told NBC4.