Ongoing worldwide efforts at controlling environmental contamination with the most recent and dangerous emerging infectious agent (2019-nCov [now officially COVID-19]) are undermined by the use of inadequate disinfection procedures. This is due to widespread dependence on conventional antimicrobial formulations that offer only short term protection of surfaces that become contaminated with corona viruses. There is an urgent need to improve surface protection measures by adopting use of newly available formulations that, for the first time, deposit long-lasting and powerful antimicrobial activity on treated surfaces, both hard and soft.