DRINKING a cuppa may help to kill Covid in the mouth, a study shows.
Researchers tested five types of tea to see how effective they were at cutting virus levels in the oral cavity.
They put each tea in hot water for 15 minutes and prepared them at two concentrations.
They incubated the teas with Covid then waited five minutes.
At the stronger concentrations, all varieties showed a reduction in virus activity within ten seconds.
Standard black tea cut levels by 99.9 per cent.
Green, mint, raspberry and eucalyptus cut them by at least 96 per cent.
Experts credit polyphenols, micronutrients that naturally occur in plants.
Gargling was also effective but the US team stressed deactivating the virus in saliva is not a replacement for getting a vaccine.
Virologist Malak Esseili said: “At this stage, we are not suggesting tea as a standalone intervention because the virus also replicates in the nose and may have already reached the lung by the time of a positive test.
“But tea can be an additional layer of intervention that patients and their families can easily adopt as routine.”