Environmental Contamination of SARS-CoV-2 in a Non-Healthcare Setting

  1. Judith Chui Ching Wong
  2. Hapuarachchige Chanditha Hapuarachchi
  3. Sathish Arivalan
  4. Wei Ping Tien
  5. Carmen Koo
  6. Diyar Mailepessov
  7. Marcella Kong
  8. Mohammad Nazeem
  9. Merrill Lim
  10. Lee Ching Ng

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Abstract

Fomite-mediated transmission has been identified as a possible route for the spread of COVID-19 disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. In healthcare settings, environmental contamination by SARS-CoV-2 has been found in patients’ rooms and toilets. Here, we investigated environmental presence of SARS-CoV-2 in non-healthcare settings and assessed the efficacy of cleaning and disinfection in removing virus contamination. A total of 428 environmental swabs and six air samples was taken from accommodation rooms, toilets and elevators that have been used by COVID-19 cases. By using a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assay, we detected two SARS-CoV-2 RNA positive samples in a room where a COVID-19 patient stayed prior to diagnosis. The present study highlights the risk of fomite-mediated transmission in non-healthcare settings and the importance of surface disinfection in spaces occupied by cases. Of note, neither air-borne transmission nor surface contamination of elevators, which were transiently exposed to infected individuals, was evident among samples analyzed.

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  1. Version published to 10.3390/ijerph18010117
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.31.20107862: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Contiguous sequences were aligned using BioEdit 7.0.5 software suite (21) and were used in the phylogenetic analysis to compare with global sequences retrieved from the GenBank database.
    BioEdit
    suggested: (BioEdit, RRID:SCR_007361)
    The maximum likelihood tree was constructed by using the general time reversible substitution model with gamma and invariant site parameters (GTR + Gamma 5 + I), implemented in MEGA version 7 (22).
    MEGA
    suggested: (Mega BLAST, RRID:SCR_011920)

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your data.

    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.

    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 10.1101/2020.05.31.20107862v1 on medRxiv