August 12, 2020

Viable SARS-CoV-2 in the Air of a Hospital Room with COVID-19 Patients

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Transmission

• [pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Lednicky et al. collected air samples containing viable SARS-CoV-2 from the hospital room of two patients with COVID-19 with respiratory symptoms. One patient had been admitted the evening prior to sampling, while the second was in the process of being discharged during sampling and had previously tested negative after an earlier positive test. Viable virus was isolated from air samples collected 2 to 4.8m away from the patients, with estimates of viable viral concentrations ranging from 6 to 74 TCID50 units/L of air. The room had six air changes per hour with triple filter treatment, coil condensation, and UV-C irradiation of exhaust air prior to recycling 90% back to the room.  

Lednicky et al. (Aug 4, 2020). Viable SARS-CoV-2 in the Air of a Hospital Room with COVID-19 Patients. Pre-print downloaded Aug 12 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.03.20167395