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Environmental Contamination of SARS-CoV-2 Delta VOC by COVID-19 Patients Staying in the Hospital for More Than Two
Jingwu Ge1, Chuanmeng Zhang2, Zhihang Peng3
1Department of Infection Management, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210009, People's Republic of China.
Background:
Patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 Delta VOC have a longer course of disease. We detected the air, surfaces, and patient's personal items in the wards of the second hospital of Nanjing during the outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta Variant to identify the environmental contamination, which provides a theoretical basis for the prevention and control of COVID-19 variation beads in the future.
Methods:
In the cross-sectional study, we collected and analyzed clinical features, demographic and epidemiological data, laboratory and swab test results, and surface and air samples of 144 COVID-19 cases.
Results:
The time from symptom onset to surface sampling was 25 days (IQR, 21 to 33 days). Positive throat swabs were detected in 52(36.1%) patients, of which only 8(5.6%) patients had N or ORF1a/b genes Ct value <35 on the surface sampling day. Among the 692 environmental surface and air specimens collected from 144 COVID-19 cases, 3 specimens (3/692, 0.4%) related to 5 cases (3.5%, 5/144) were detected positive on RT-PCR. Overall, bedside tables (2/144, 1.4%) were most likely to be contaminated, followed by toilet seats (1/81, 1.2%).
Conclusion:
The environmental contamination by SARS-CoV-2 Delta VOC-infected cases with disease duration of more than two weeks is limited.
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