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SARS-CoV-2 viability on sports equipment is limited, and dependent on material composition.
Edwards, Thomas; Kay, Grant A; Aljayyoussi, Ghaith; Owen, Sophie I; Harland, Andy R; Pierce, Nicholas S; Calder, James D F; Fletcher, Tom E; Adams, Emily R.
  • Edwards T; Department of Tropical Disease Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool, L3 5QA, UK.
  • Kay GA; Department of Tropical Disease Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool, L3 5QA, UK.
  • Aljayyoussi G; Department of Tropical Disease Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool, L3 5QA, UK.
  • Owen SI; Department of Tropical Disease Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool, L3 5QA, UK.
  • Harland AR; Wolfson School of Mechanical, Manufacturing and Electrical Engineering, Loughborough University, Ashby Road, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK.
  • Pierce NS; England and Wales Cricket Board and National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK.
  • Calder JDF; Fortius Clinic, London, W1U 2EU, UK.
  • Fletcher TE; Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
  • Adams ER; Department of Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool, L3 5QA, UK.
Sci Rep ; 12(1): 1416, 2022 01 26.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1655626
ABSTRACT
The control of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK has necessitated restrictions on amateur and professional sports due to the perceived infection risk to competitors, via direct person to person transmission, or possibly via the surfaces of sports equipment. The sharing of sports equipment such as tennis balls was therefore banned by some sport's governing bodies. We sought to investigate the potential of sporting equipment as transmission vectors of SARS-CoV-2. Ten different types of sporting equipment, including balls from common sports, were inoculated with 40 µl droplets containing clinically relevant concentrations of live SARS-CoV-2 virus. Materials were then swabbed at time points relevant to sports (1, 5, 15, 30, 90 min). The amount of live SARS-CoV-2 recovered at each time point was enumerated using viral plaque assays, and viral decay and half-life was estimated through fitting linear models to log transformed data from each material. At one minute, SARS-CoV-2 virus was recovered in only seven of the ten types of equipment with the low dose inoculum, one at five minutes and none at 15 min. Retrievable virus dropped significantly for all materials tested using the high dose inoculum with mean recovery of virus falling to 0.74% at 1 min, 0.39% at 15 min and 0.003% at 90 min. Viral recovery, predicted decay, and half-life varied between materials with porous surfaces limiting virus transmission. This study shows that there is an exponential reduction in SARS-CoV-2 recoverable from a range of sports equipment after a short time period, and virus is less transferrable from materials such as a tennis ball, red cricket ball and cricket glove. Given this rapid loss of viral load and the fact that transmission requires a significant inoculum to be transferred from equipment to the mucous membranes of another individual it seems unlikely that sports equipment is a major cause for transmission of SARS-CoV-2. These findings have important policy implications in the context of the pandemic and may promote other infection control measures in sports to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and urge sports equipment manufacturers to identify surfaces that may or may not be likely to retain transferable virus.
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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 Type of study: Experimental Studies / Prognostic study Limits: Humans Language: English Journal: Sci Rep Year: 2022 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: S41598-022-05515-1

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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 Type of study: Experimental Studies / Prognostic study Limits: Humans Language: English Journal: Sci Rep Year: 2022 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: S41598-022-05515-1