[oldalum]

Why lower?  

Because she directly touched a surface without protection that seconds or minutes earlier had been touched by another person's hand, then she presumably didn't wash her hands when she came in. Can't think of a more likely fomite transmission, unless the neighbor had coughed onto her hands and then carried the bags to her door. 

She picked up the mail every several days, so much of it had been sitting there for hours to days, and had been put there by a postman wearing gloves (which can certainly be contaminated, but less likely to touch your face with gloves on or cough onto the gloves).

My impression is that the thinking on fomite transmission is that it's less easy than previously thought, hence the title of this thread and the comments above that fomite transmission is uncommon.

But YMMV. It's all speculation on our part.

[oldalum]

Why lower?  

Because she directly touched a surface without protection that seconds or minutes earlier had been touched by another person's hand, then she presumably didn't wash her hands when she came in. Can't think of a more likely fomite transmission, unless the neighbor had coughed onto her hands and then carried the bags to her door. 

She picked up the mail every several days, so much of it had been sitting there for hours to days, and had been put there by a postman wearing gloves (which can certainly be contaminated, but less likely to touch your face with gloves on or cough onto the gloves).

My impression is that the thinking on fomite transmission is that it's less easy than previously thought, hence the title of this thread and the comments above that fomite transmission is uncommon.

But YMMV. It's all speculation on our part.