Appliance of Science: Can we use UV light to inactivate Covid-19?

UV light from the sun causes sunburn if you are exposed to it too long.

I’ve been asked this a couple of times in the last few days. As Covid-19 is a novel virus (it has never infected humans before) we have very little, if any, research on what can inactivate it. However, in a domestic setting, it is unlikely we can use UV light against the Covid-19 virus, and we can put ourselves at risk in so doing, writes Dr Naomi Lavelle