Scientists find way to kill COVID-19 in few seconds

Scientists at Texas A&M University have found a way to kill the COVID-19 in a second using heat. This could provide an opportunity to find new ways to prevent long-range transmission of the pathogen, Biotechnology and Bioengineering reported.

As Phys.org reports, the effectiveness of using high temperatures to successfully neutralize coronavirus has been demonstrated before, but in previous studies, exposure to temperature lasted from one to 20 minutes, which is impractical.

The scientists have built a new experimental setup consisting of a piece of stainless steel pipe through which a solution containing the COVID-19 passes. The pipe heats up to a high temperature, but the virus is only exposed to heat for a few seconds.

As it turned out, the virus can be neutralized in a much shorter time than previously thought. If the solution is heated to almost 72 degrees Celsius for about half a second, then the titer of the virus is reduced by 100,000 times, which is enough to neutralize the virus and prevent transmission to humans.

According to scientists, this method can be applied in existing air conditioning, ventilation, and heating systems.