Study Confirms SARS-CoV-2 on Hospital Surfaces is Unlikely to be Infectious

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A new study by UC Davis researchers confirms the low likelihood that SARS-CoV-2 contamination on hospital surfaces is infectious. The study, published in PLOS ONE, is the original report on recovering near-complete SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences directly from surface swabs.

"Our team was the first to demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 virus sequences could be identified from environmental swabs collected from hospital surfaces," said Angela Haczku, a respiratory immunologist and senior author on the study.

The study demonstrated that by genome sequencing, SARS-CoV-2 could be detected even from samples that otherwise tested negative (undetectable) by commonly used PCR tests. The results also confirmed that the SARS-CoV-2 RNA picked up from a surface, although containing near- intact genomic sequence, was not infectious. This finding supports the hypothesis that contaminated surfaces may not be a major way for spreading COVID-19 disease.

"For the first time, to our knowledge, we were able to determine the viral genome sequence from surface swab samples obtained in a hospital environment," said David Coil, project scientist at the UC Davis Genome Center and the first author on the study. "We found SARS-CoV-2 in samples that were tested negative by RT-PCR, suggesting that the sequencing technology is superior for virus detection in environmental samples."

According to Coil, the genome sequencing performed on the hospital surface swab samples is very important. By getting accurate viral genomic sequences, the researchers could track the source and figure out how an infection moves.

"Our data indicated that the sequences determined for the viral RNA from surfaces were identical to the ones derived from the patients hospitalized in the ICU at the time of sample collection. The ability to identify viral genome sequences from environmental samples may have high public health significance in outbreak surveillance and monitoring the spread of new viral variants," Haczku said.

Republished courtesy of UC Davis. 

 

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