Environmental surface and air contamination in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) patient rooms by disease severity

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to spread around the world. In addition to community-acquired infections, nosocomial infections are also a major social concern. The likelihood of environmental contamination and transmission of the virus based on disease severity is unknown.Methods: We collected nasopharyngeal, environmental and air samples from patients with COVID-19 admitted to the National Centre for Global Health and Medicine between Jan-uary 29th and February 29th, 2020. The patients were classified by severity of disease. The collected samples were tested using severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT-PCR).Results: SARS-CoV-2 was not detected in a subset of 11 air samples. Of the 141 environ-mental samples collected from three patient bays and two single rooms, four samples tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by real-time RT-PCR. Detections were made on the surface of a stethoscope used in the care of a patient with severe disease, on the intubation tube of a patient classified as critical (and on ventilator management), and on the surface of a gown worn by the nurse providing care.Conclusions: Regardless of the patients' disease severity, SARS-CoV-2 was detected on very few environmental surfaces. However, detection of SARS-CoV-2 on stethoscopes used in the care of multiple patients and on the surface of gowns worn by clinical staff indicates that medical devices may be linked to the spread of infection.& COPY; 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Healthcare Infection Society.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).