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Adherence of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant to a surgical mask and N95 respirators
Ana C Lorenzo-Leal1, Selvarani Vimalanathan1,2, Horacio Bach1
1Faculty of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3Z6, Canada.
Abstract:
The use of facial protection has been adopted globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We dissected four respirators and one surgical mask into layers to determine whether or not the virus adheres to them. These individual layers were contaminated with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, and its release by vortexing was performed. Samples were used to infect Vero cells, and a plaque assay was used to evaluate the adherence of the virus to the layers. Results showed that a cumulative log reduction of the layers reduced the load of the virus by at least sixfold. Our study confirms the effectiveness of facial protection in reducing the transmission and/or infection of SARS-CoV-2.
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