Fast Air-to-Liquid Sampler Detects Surges in SARS-CoV-2 Aerosol Levels in Hospital Rooms.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the dangers of airborne pathogen transmission. SARS-CoV-2 is known to be transmitted through aerosols; however, little is known about the dynamics of these aerosols in real environments, the conditions, and the minimum viral load required for infection. Efficiently measuring and capturing pathogens present in the air would help to understand the infection process. Air samplers usually take several hours to obtain an air sample. In this work a fast (1-2 min) method for capturing bioaerosols into a liquid medium has been tested in hospital rooms with COVID-19 patients. This fast sampling allows detecting transient levels of aerosols in the air. SARS-CoV-2 RNA is detected in aerosols from several hospital rooms at different levels. Interestingly, there are sudden boosts of the SARS-CoV-2 load in the air, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 could be released abundantly at certain moments. These results show that the distribution of SARS-CoV-2-containing aerosols is not homogeneous in the hospital room. This technology is a fast and effective tool for capturing airborne matter in a very short time, which allows for fast decision-making any kind of hazard in the air is detected. It is also useful for a better understanding of aerosols dynamics.

Assessment of Surface Disinfection Effectiveness of Decontamination System COUNTERFOG® SDR-F05A+ Against Bacteriophage ɸ29.

The experience of COVID19 pandemic has demonstrated the real concern of biological agents dispersed in the air and surfaces environments. Therefore, the need of a fast and large-scale disinfection method has arisen for prevention of contagion. COUNTERFOG® is an innovative technology developed for large-scale decontamination of air and surfaces. The objective of this study is to assess experimentally the effectiveness of COUNTERFOG® in disinfecting viral-contaminated surfaces. We also aim to measure the necessary time to disinfect said surfaces. Stainless steel surfaces were contaminated with bacteriophage φ29 and disinfected using COUNTERFOG® SDR-F05A+, which uses a sodium hypochlorite solution at different concentrations and for different exposure times. A log reduction over 6 logs of virus titer is obtained in 1 min with 1.2% sodium hypochlorite when the application is direct; while at a radial distance of 5 cm from the point of application the disinfection reaches a reduction of 5.5 logs in 8 min. In the same way, a higher dilution of the sodium hypochlorite concentration (0.7% NaOCl) requires more exposure time (16 min) to obtain the same log reduction (> 6 logs). COUNTERFOG® creates, in a short time and at a distance of 2 m from the point of application, a thin layer of disinfectant that covers the surfaces. The selection of the concentration and exposure time is critical for the efficacy of disinfection. These tests demonstrate that a concentration between 0.7- 1.2% sodium hypochlorite is enough for a fast and efficient ɸ29 phage inactivation. The fact that ɸ29 phage is more resistant to disinfection than SARS-CoV-2 sustains this disinfection procedure.