ABSTRACT
Past experiments demonstrated SARS-CoV-2 inactivation by simulated sunlight; models have considered exclusively mechanisms involving UVB acting directly on RNA. However, UVA inactivation has been demonstrated for other enveloped RNA viruses, through indirect mechanisms involving the suspension medium. We propose a model combining UVB and UVA inactivation for SARS-CoV-2, which improves predictions by accounting for effects associated with the medium. UVA sensitivities deduced for SARS-CoV-2 are consistent with data for SARS-CoV-1 under UVA only. This analysis calls for experiments to separately assess effects of UVA and UVB in different media, and for including UVA in inactivation models. Key words: SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, environmental persistence, sunlight, UVA, UVB, modeling, inactivation methods, photobiology