{"id":49977,"date":"2025-04-25T21:21:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T01:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hancockhealth.org\/mayo-health-library\/cold-and-flu-viruses-how-long-can-they-live-outside-the-body\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T11:39:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:39:40","slug":"cold-and-flu-viruses-how-long-can-they-live-outside-the-body","status":"publish","type":"mayo","link":"https:\/\/www.hancockhealth.org\/es\/mayo-health-library\/cold-and-flu-viruses-how-long-can-they-live-outside-the-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold and flu viruses: How long can they live outside the body?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"container mx-auto   wordpress-block wordpress- core-\">\n<p>Viruses that cause the common cold, the flu and COVID-19 may be able to infect someone for several hours to days. It depends on factors such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The structure of the virus.<\/strong> Some viruses are better than others at managing temperature, humidity or other conditions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The climate and the indoor environment.<\/strong> This includes humidity, airflow, sunlight and temperature.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The surface the virus lands on.<\/strong> Some viruses remain infectious for longer on hard surfaces. Others stay more infectious on fabrics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can catch a virus if you touch something that a person with the virus sneezed or coughed on minutes before.<\/p>\n<p>But close contact with a person who has one of these viruses is the most common way they spread. This includes shaking hands or being close enough to breathe in the virus that a person sends out with a cough or sneeze.<\/p>\n<p>Getting COVID-19 and flu vaccines helps lower the chance that you will catch or spread these viruses or get seriously ill from or die of the illnesses they cause.<\/p>\n<p>You can lower your risk of catching viruses that cause colds, flu and COVID-19 in other ways too:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Wash your hands.<\/strong> Wash your hands well and often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water aren&#8217;t available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cover your coughs and sneezes.<\/strong> Cough or sneeze into a tissue or your elbow. Then wash your hands.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Avoid touching your face.<\/strong> Keep your hands away from your eyes, nose and mouth to keep germs away from those places.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Help from afar.<\/strong> Avoid close contact with anyone who is sick or has symptoms, if possible.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces.<\/strong> For example, clean doorknobs, light switches, electronics and counters regularly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you&#8217;re sick, stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone. That lowers your chance of infecting others. And if you have symptoms of COVID-19, test for the infection. If you know you&#8217;ve been exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19, test five days after you came in contact with the virus.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some viruses are more resilient than you may think. Learn more about how they spread and how to protect yourself.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[1685,1682,1684],"class_list":["post-49977","mayo","type-mayo","status-publish","hentry","tag-condition","tag-person-group-concept","tag-theme-of-focus","content_type-answers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cold and flu viruses: How long can they live outside the body? - Hancock Health<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hancockhealth.org\/es\/mayo-health-library\/cold-and-flu-viruses-how-long-can-they-live-outside-the-body\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cold and flu viruses: How long can they live outside the body? - Hancock Health\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some viruses are more resilient than you may think. 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