Fears over coronavirus transmission are causing several states and cities to encourage single use plastic bags for shopping, undermining the trend toward more environmentally friendly reusable bags.

San Francisco became the latest municipality last week to temporarily ban the use of reusable shopping bags, along with any other reusable items from home, like coffee mugs, that might bring outside germs into stores in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. New Hampshire, Illinois and Massachusetts have also banned the use of reusable bags, and states like Maine have delayed laws passed before the coronavirus pandemic that would discourage the use of single use plastic bags, MarketWatch reported. Grocery store chains have also banned their use.

Among the experts, the jury is still out on which bags are safer to use or the likelihood that either can transmit coronavirus.

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(WATCH: COVID-19 Forces Delay of Plastic Bag Ban in the U.S.)

A much-cited study by the National Institutes of Health concluded that the novel coronavirus can survive on plastic surfaces for up to three days and on cardboard for up to one day. But it's not clear how that data would apply to plastic bags.

Recommendations on food safety from North Carolina State University says that "at this time, there is no link between reusable bags and COVID-19."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says COVID-19 is spread through respiratory droplets in the air and "transmission of novel coronavirus to persons from surfaces contaminated with the virus has not been documented," but recommend that all surfaces be cleaned thoroughly and regularly. The CDC doesn't mention cloth, but does say the clothing of those infected should be thoroughly washed and should not be shaken in the air.

Advocates for plastic bags, meanwhile, are taking the opportunity to promote their agenda. The Plastics Industry Association sent a letter last week to the U.S. Department of Health requesting that bans on single-use plastics during a pandemic be declared a threat to public health, The New York Times reported. A longstanding campaign called Bag the Ban, a project of the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance, has posted links to at least 19 articles and opinion pieces in the past six weeks that tout the advantages of plastic bags over reusable cloth ones, most of them saying that plastic is cleaner or safer to use.

Either way, experts agree that plastic shopping bags should be discarded immediately after use and reusable shopping bags should be washed.

And many believe that when it comes to anything reusable now days, it's better to be safe than sorry.

“In this situation, the theoretical risk goes both ways," Marion Nestle, a professor of food studies, nutrition and public health at New York University told Huffington Post. "The grocery store runs the risk that your bag is contaminated and the checkout clerk will touch it, pick up the virus and pass it on. You run the risk that the checkout clerk is a carrier and touches the bag you take home. Wasting some bags seems like a small price to pay for peace of mind."

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.