MOSCOW — Russia’s state news agency TASS announced that a team of Russian researchers that have studied the Delta variant have reported in their findings that the Delta variant of the virus can live in water for 72 hours.

While trying to identify the new mutant of the emerging coronavirus Delta, a group of experts at the Russian Victor Center for Microbiology discovered new information about the nature of the Delta variant.

The virologists at the Russian Victor Center said that the strains’ ability to survive up to 72 hours under water is no different from the other strains of COVID-19.

A spokesman for the center said that the research methods used by the center’s specialists did not differ from the methods used a year ago while conducting research on other strains of the virus.

They tested the variant’s viability in samples of drinkable chlorine-free water and seawater at a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius, in order to arrive at a confirmed conclusion.

According to the research, the Delta variant can retain its ability to survive in samples of drinking water free of chlorine for up to 72 hours.