Coronavirus can survive on door handles and bus and train poles for up to nine days, experts say, more than four times longer than flu.
New research shows the virus is much harder to kill than common bugs and therefore spreading so rapidly.
Surfaces that are frequently touched are most likely to be harbouring the highly contagious disease - especially in hospitals or crowded transport stations.
Professor Gunter Kampf, the lead author into the study at Greifswald University Hospital in northern Germany, said: "In hospitals these can be door handles, for example, but also call buttons, bedside tables, bed frames and other objects in the direct vicinity of patients, which are often made of metal or plastic."
Flu viruses can survive on hard surfaces and infect another person for 24 to 48 hours but coronavirus remains infectious at room temperature for up to nine days.
"Low temperature and high air humidity further increase their lifespan," Professor Kampf added.
The study, published in the Journal of Hospital Infection, comes as the death toll of the 2019-nCov exceeds 900.
Dubbed the Wuhan virus, the vile disease has infected people in the UK. A doctors surgery was forced to close today in Brighton, East Sussex, as a result.
Prof Kampf continued: "The analysis of 22 studies reveals that human coronaviruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus or endemic human coronaviruses (HCoV) can persist on inanimate surfaces like metal, glass or plastic for up to 9 days.
And co-author of the new study, Professor Eike Steinmann, head of the Department for Molecular and Medical Virology at Ruhr-University Bochum, said: "Under the circumstances, the best approach was to publish these verified scientific facts in advance, in order to make all information available at a glance."
Tests showed disinfectants and bleaches containing ethanol, hydrogen peroxide or sodium hypochlorite are most effective.