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I'm not saying that the floor is wet. But I feel even when our shoes or dry, it can carry virus with it and may get attached to floors.

If this happens, how long it can stay on the floor tiles of a room?

I'm seeing results about survival on various surfaces on many sites and on news for past 2-3 months. For example this. I found something about floors too here But I couldn't find significant information about survival on the floors and especially survival on dry floor (unlike some drops from mouth while speaking falls on floor).

Note: The tiles are ceramic tiles which are usually used on floors. Mine one look like these: https://www.lavishceramics.com/blog/5-myths-about-wood-look-tile/

PS: I'm interested in knowing this because I put a mat on my floor and then do Yoga. So while my nose close to floor, I might inhale the virus from dry surface in.

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  • What material is the floor made of?
    – Mark
    Commented Jul 17, 2020 at 0:24
  • @Mark updated the same.
    – Vikas
    Commented Jul 17, 2020 at 5:39

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Yes, corona virus does stay on the floor, and the reason can be, one's shoes. An interesting study

In this study, we tested surface and air samples from an intensive care unit (ICU) and a general COVID-19 ward (GW) at Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China

The rate of positivity was relatively high for floor swab samples (ICU 7/10, 70%; GW 2/13, 15.4%), perhaps because of gravity and air flow causing most virus droplets to float to the ground. In addition, as medical staff walk around the ward, the virus can be tracked all over the floor, as indicated by the 100% rate of positivity from the floor in the pharmacy, where there were no patients. Furthermore, half of the samples from the soles of the ICU medical staff shoes tested positive. Therefore, the soles of medical staff shoes might function as carriers.

Now, about how long the virus can stay. According to this article

An inoculum of 103 plaque forming units (PFU) persisted on polyfluorotetraethylene (Teflon; PTFE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), ceramic tiles, glass, and stainless steel for at least 5 days (and 3 days for silicon rubber) at 21°C and a relative humidity of 30% to 40%.

Hence it is better to clean one's shoes and not to wear them inside their house :)

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    The study you cite for how long the virus can survive is for "Human Coronavirus 229E". This isn't the same as "SARS-CoV-2", although it is in the same general group of viruses.
    – Mark
    Commented Jul 17, 2020 at 20:42
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    Yes that's right. However since they both are of the same group, they would be showing similar characteristics, plus the other article that I mentioned, i.e. the study done in China, that one also mentions that SARS-CoV-2 can remain on days on ceramic tiles. However 5 days may or may not be exact for SARS but atleast we can be sure that it is dangerous and hence precautions are must
    – Ojasvi
    Commented Jul 18, 2020 at 10:20

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