A Field Study for SARS-CoV-2 Evaluation by Two Air Sampling Strategy During Spread in Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Outbreak of COVID-19 in different countries is an emergency in global public health recently. According to high spread of the newborn virus, airborne transmission potency of SARS-CoV-2 is possible. Until now, there are contradictory results for air evaluation of newborn virus in the contaminated area. We studied SARS-CoV-2 in the patient room of a hospital by two air sampling strategies. Filtration method and liquid impaction sampling were used simultaneously to assess SARS-CoV-2 in air. Indoor air of seven stations in three hospital wards was evaluated according to glass midget impinger and polytetrafluoroethylene filter. RNA of SARS-CoV-2 was evaluated by real time reverse transcription-PCR. Studied rooms were contaminated by eleven confirmed patients and four suspected cases. Our results show polytetrafluoroethylene filtration and DMEM impaction could not determine the viral concentration in the air samples. The concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in air samples is a trace in the studied stations. In conclusion, sampling strategy is a challenge for newborn virus due to the level of SARS-CoV-2 virus in the air. A trace level of SARS-CoV-2 in the contaminated area could be highlighted higher pathogenicity properties, not disapproval of airborne properties. However, more studies should be performed to characterize new properties of SARS-CoV-2 in the contaminated air.

Keywords

• covid-19 outbreak
• air sampling
• filtration