Professor Anthony Staines:

I would have to defer that to someone who is an expert on the virus. It is possible to detect the virus long after it is dead. One can find a positive test for a virus with no living virus, and the place one is most likely to find that is somewhere cold. I really would have to ask somebody who is an expert in the areas of viral spread and viral survival what their thoughts are. I would not have thought it is a major contributor to our risks. It was suggested in the New Zealand outbreak of two days ago but the direction of the investigation there has now gone towards someone who broke the quarantine regulations and may have triggered the outbreak in Auckland by doing that.