Environmental Screening for Surface SARS-CoV-2 Contamination in Urban High-Touch Areas
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Abstract
The novel human coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the COVID-19 outbreak, which reached pandemic-level infection rates in just a few short months after being identified in late 2019. Early transmission models focused on surface contamination, but current research provides evidence for person-to-person transmission via aerosolized viral particles. As such, the CDC’s guidance has recently been updated to increasingly redirect the focus of prevention methods to aerosol routes. Inhalation of SARS-CoV-2 particles presents the most significant threat of infection to individuals. A secondary route, from hand to mouth, eyes or nose, is likely after contact with a surface contaminated with particles that have settled out of aerosols or been deposited by contaminated hands. Using common molecular detection methods including endpoint and quantitative PCR, we investigated whether there is detectable contamination by SARS-CoV-2 on high-touch surfaces on public transit vehicles and on other high-touch surfaces on a college campus during normal use. Our results indicate that SARS-CoV-2 can be successfully recovered and detected on common high-touch surfaces, albeit in comparatively lower frequencies as public health guidance progressed and more rigorous sanitization procedures were implemented.
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Graphical abstract created with permission from BioRender.com (2021) .
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.05.04.21256107: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics Field Sample Permit: Sample Collection and RNA Extraction: Sterile, PBS-soaked (Gibco, Waltham, MA) foam-tipped (Puritan Medical Products, Guilford, ME) swabs were used to collect samples from high-touch areas early in the pandemic on campus at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC). Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources After the conversion of RNA to cDNA, we screened for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA using Bioline’s MyFi™ kit (Meridian Bioscience, Cincinnati, OH) and IDT’s Research Use Only (RUO) N1 and N2 nucleocapsid gene primers. Bioline’sSciScore for 10.1101/2021.05.04.21256107: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics Field Sample Permit: Sample Collection and RNA Extraction: Sterile, PBS-soaked (Gibco, Waltham, MA) foam-tipped (Puritan Medical Products, Guilford, ME) swabs were used to collect samples from high-touch areas early in the pandemic on campus at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC). Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources After the conversion of RNA to cDNA, we screened for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA using Bioline’s MyFi™ kit (Meridian Bioscience, Cincinnati, OH) and IDT’s Research Use Only (RUO) N1 and N2 nucleocapsid gene primers. Bioline’ssuggested: NoneResults from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
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