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Sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 to different temperatures
Qi Lv1, Mingya Liu1, Feifei Qi1
1Key Laboratory of Human Disease Comparative Medicine Chinese Ministry of Health Beijing Key Laboratory for Animal Models of Emerging and Remerging Infectious Diseases Institute of Laboratory Animal Science Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Comparative Medicine Center Peking Union Medical College Beijing China.
Abstract:
This study was designed to investigate the sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 to different temperatures, to provide basic data and a scientific basis for the control of COVID-19 epidemic. The virus was dispersed in 1 mL basal DMEM medium at a final concentration of 103.2 TCID50/mL and then incubated at 4, 22, 30, 35, 37, 38, 39 and 40°C for up to 5 days. The infectivity of residual virus was titrated using the Vero E6 cell line. The results showed that the virus remained viable for 5 days at 4°C, and for 1 day only at 22 and 30°C. We found that the infectivity of the virus was completely lost after less than 12 hours at 37, 38 and 39°C, while at 40°C, the inactivation time of the virus was rapidly reduced to 6 hours. We show that SARS-CoV-2 is sensitive to heat, is more stable at lower temperatures than higher temperature, remains viable for longer at lower temperatures, and loses viability rapidly at higher temperatures.
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