New study finds UV light has 99.9 percent effective rate against COVID-19

Tel Aviv University researchers report in a new study that they have found a way to kill the COVID-19 virus using ultra-violet light.

The study was published in the peer reviewed Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology, the Jerusalem Post reports. Researchers studied the effects of ultra-violet radiation emitted onto the coronavirus at different wavelengths.

The study's abstract reads, "UV light-emitting diodes (UV LEDs) are an emerging technology and a UV source for pathogen inactivation, however low UV-LED wavelengths are costly and have low fluence rate. Our results suggest that the sensitivity of human Coronavirus (HCoV-OC43 used as SARS-CoV-2 surrogate) was wavelength dependent with 267 nm ~ 279 nm > 286 nm > 297 nm."

"Other viruses showed similar results, suggesting UV LED with peak emission at ~286 nm could serve as an effective tool in the fight against human Coronaviruses," it continues.

The results showed that it took UV lightbulbs less than 30 seconds to disinfect 99.9 percent of the coronavirus.

President Trump previously acknowledged UV light as a possible amelioration to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light and I think you said that hasn't been checked but you're going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way," Trump said, adding it "sounds interesting."