Persistence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Aerosol Suspensions

Abstract

We aerosolized severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and determined that its dynamic aerosol efficiency surpassed those of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and Middle East respiratory syndrome. Although we performed experiment only once across several laboratories, our findings suggest retained infectivity and virion integrity for up to 16 hours in respirable-sized aerosols.

Keywords

• aerosol
• coronavirus diseases
• 2019 novel coronavirus disease
• COVID-19
• SARS-CoV-2
• severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2