NEW ENGLAND — COVID-19 can live in the air up to three hours and on certain surfaces for several days, according to a recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Scientists from the National Institutes of Health, CDC, UCLA and Princeton University conducted the study and penned the conclusion paper.

They sought to examine the stability of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) as well as comparing this particular strain of coronavirus with the similar SARS virus (SARS-CoV-1) that appeared in the early 2000s.

According to the NIH, SARS infected more than 8,000 people in 2002 and 2003. No cases have been detected since 2004.

But if the two viruses are so similar, why was SARS so limited in its spread in contrast to COVID-19? The answer may be two-fold.

The study found that COVID-19 survived on surfaces longer than SARS.