Malaysian Doctor: Don’t Worry, Getting Coronavirus From Your Taobao Parcels Is Low

Some of you wondered if your Taobao parcels that are delivered from China might have been contaminated with the coronavirus, we’re have found an answer to these uncertainties.

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A doctor from Sungai Buloh Hospital, who is also the National Advisor for Infectious Diseases in the Ministry of Health, Dr Christopher Lee, responded to this very issue about receiving parcels from China. He mentioned that all parcels from China take at least 24 hours to reach Malaysia, thus the risk of transmission of the novel coronavirus via shipping is actually pretty low.

Source: cnn

Although the officials have yet to announce if the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) will spread via non-living things, Dr Lee supported his views with other types coronavirus like SARS and MERS. He said that since 2019-nCoV is categorised as a coronavirus, the pattern of transmission should be somewhat similar to SARS and MERS, as reported on Sin Chew Daily.

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If we focus on the SARS virus, the virus will only survive outside of the human body for a few hours and up to four days in faecal matters.

“The virus (SARS) will survive longer (up to a few days) in a damp or wet environment. However, on dry surfaces like plastic, the virus can only live up to a few hours.”

Besides that, if you’re still paranoid about getting your Taobao parcels, China Post’s Express Mail Service (EMS) had announced that they will delay all the shipping in order to double-disinfect the goods.

Source: wikimedia

“To ensure the public’s safety, we will ‘double-disinfect’ the parcels and the vehicles that will go through Wuhan, delaying the shipping progress.”

Note: This does not mean that we will not contract the coronavirus at all, Dr Lee is emphasising on the lifespan of the virus outside of a human host/body. It is still recommended to take preventative measures at all times.

Also read: Doctor From Sungai Buloh Hospital: Wear N95 Face Masks If You Need To Visit The Hospital