A study found that the hepatitis C virus can live on surfaces for six weeks. Did they end the study before the seventh week began?
The place to find this information would be the Methods section of the paper.


  We spotted 33 µL of plasma spiked with HCVcc on the 24-well plates. They were either immediately tested for viable virus or stored at 4°C, 22°C, and 37°C for up to 6 weeks before testing.


They tested their samples for (up to) 6 weeks. At the time of the 6th week they still found infectious virus. They did not test samples beyond 6 weeks so they can't say anything about infection past that time.