Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
Volume 28, Issue 36, Pages 50480-50488Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-14260-3
Keywords
SARS-coronavirus-2; Airborne transmission; Hospital indoor air; Impinger method; COVID-19 patient wards; Temperature; Relative humidity
Categories
Funding
- Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, Ardabil, Iran (ARUMS) [3852]
- INSF [99004900]
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This study evaluated the quality of hospital indoor air in detecting SARS-CoV-2, with no virus detected in air samples taken 2 to 5 meters away from the patients' beds. It is suggested that airborne transmission may not have much effect on the pandemic, although results could have been impacted by patients being hospitalized in negative pressure rooms.
In December 2019, all nations learnt about the emergence of a pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), induced by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is a member of the beta-coronavirus group. As SARS-CoV-2 has the potentiality of leading to life-threatening respiratory failure, its transmission routes need to be characterized. Yet, the possibility of airborne transmission is still debated. This study was performed to evaluate potential hospital indoor air viral quality in order to detect SARS-COV-2. For this purpose, an impinger method was used to monitor the SARS-COV-2 virus in the air. Thus, 33 samples were collected from 8 different hospital locations. The sampling time was between 50 and 60 min with a sampling flow rate of 28 L/min. Air samples were taken from 2 to 5 m away from the patients' beds. Temperature, relative humidity, and CO2 concentration were 28, 37, and 438 ppm, respectively. The results indicated that air samples which were 2 to 5 m away from the patients' beds were negative for the presence of the virus. According to the obtained results, it is suggested that airborne transmission may not have much effect on this pandemic. However, as the patients with SARS-CoV-2 were hospitalized in rooms with negative air pressure, the results might have been negatively affected.
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