{"id":22529,"date":"2020-04-01T11:44:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T06:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/newspapers-not-covid-19-carriers-say-top-scientists\/"},"modified":"2020-04-01T11:44:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T06:14:20","slug":"newspapers-not-covid-19-carriers-say-top-scientists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=22529","title":{"rendered":"Newspapers not Covid-19 carriers, say top scientists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/m.economictimes.com\/news\/politics-and-nation\/newspapers-not-covid-19-carriers-say-top-scientists\/articleshow\/74784386.cms\">ET Bureau<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>NEW DELHI:<\/strong> Scientists at India\u2019s top health research bodies and health experts have said holding newspapers in your hands is safe, and there is no evidence of them or other types of paper being carriers of Covid-19 infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the past week, there have been WhatsApp messages and forwards \u2014 stating that newspapers can be avenues of infection. But this has been roundly refuted by health experts and doctors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nivedita Gupta, chief epidemiologist at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), told ET that Covid-19 is a \u201crespiratory infection\u201d and there is \u201cno risk\u201d of catching it through newspapers and packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sujeet Singh, director of National Centre for Disease Control, said NCDC\u2019s helpline number has been working round the clock to refute such rumours. \u201cInvestigating virologists have not found any evidence that suggests that it can survive on paper. We are getting these queries on everyday basis and clarifying them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Renowned heart surgeon Devi Shetty ruled out the likelihood of the virus lingering in the air for hours \u2014 the characteristic that makes measles infectious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe virus cannot sustain for longer periods. Right now there is no evidence that the virus can survive on surfaces, for that mutation should happen. It will take a long time and will require infection getting spread to huge number of people,\u201d he said, rubbishing rumours that the virus can be spread through newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Experts said Covid-19 spreads from person to person among close contacts and, as of now, there is no evidence that suggests the virus is airborne and hence may be infecting surfaces. Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia said, \u201cAirborne spread has not been reported for Covid-19. Based on the information received so far and on our experience with other coronaviruses, Covid-19 appears to spread mostly through respiratory droplets (for instance produced when a sick person coughs) and close contact. This is why WHO recommends maintaining hand and respiratory hygiene\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Randeep Guleria, Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said the possibility of an infected person contaminating commercial goods and infection risk from a package that has travelled from one place to another, is low. \u201cSurvivabiity of the virus on cardboard surfaces is quite low as compared to metal or steel; hence there is no chance of virus being spread through newspapers,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention also claims that it is highly unlikely that Coronavirus could spread through newspaper delivery. \u201cThese are rumours, that\u2019s all I can say,\u201d cardiac surgeon Naresh Trehan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ET Bureau NEW DELHI: Scientists at India\u2019s top health research bodies and health experts have said holding newspapers in your hands is safe, and there is no evidence of them or other types of paper being carriers of Covid-19 infection. Over the past week, there have been WhatsApp messages and forwards \u2014 stating that newspapers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}