Presence and stability of SARS-CoV-2 on environmental currency and money cards in Utah reveals a lack of live virus

  1. Colleen R. Newey
  2. Abigail T. Olausson
  3. Alyssa Applegate
  4. Ann-Aubrey Reid
  5. Richard A. Robison
  6. Julianne H. Grose

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Abstract

The highly contagious nature of SARS-CoV-2 has led to several studies on the transmission of the virus. A little studied potential fomite of great concern in the community is currency, which has been shown to harbor microbial pathogens in several studies. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses in the United States have limited the use of banknotes in favor of credit cards. However, SARS-CoV-2 has shown greater stability on plastic in several studies. Herein, the stability of SARS-CoV-2 at room temperature on banknotes, money cards and coins was investigated. In vitro studies with live virus suggested SARS-CoV-2 was highly unstable on banknotes, showing an initial rapid reduction in viable virus and no viral detection by 24 hours. In contrast, SARS-CoV-2 displayed increased stability on money cards with live virus detected after 48 hours. Environmental swabbing of currency and money cards on and near the campus of Brigham Young University supported these results, with no detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on banknotes, and a low level on money cards. However, no viable virus was detected on either. These preliminary results suggest that the use of money cards over banknotes in order to slow the spread of this virus may be ill-advised. These findings should be investigated further through larger environmental studies involving more locations.

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  1. Version published to 10.1371/journal.pone.0263025
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.08.23.457328: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsField Sample Permit: All work was conducted under proper safety handling procedures approved by the BYU Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC-2020-0068).
    IACUC: All work was conducted under proper safety handling procedures approved by the BYU Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC-2020-0068).
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Statistical Analysis: Graphs were produced using GraphPad Prism software version 8.0.0 (
    GraphPad Prism
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)
    GraphPad Software, San Diego California) and ANOVA with post hoc Tukey HSD was performed using JMP pro version 15 (JMP®, Version 15.
    GraphPad
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)
    SAS Institute Inc.
    SAS Institute
    suggested: (Statistical Analysis System, RRID:SCR_008567)

    Results 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.
    • No funding statement was detected.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.08.23.457328 on bioRxiv