This one falls in the category of “yet another problematic thing to think about”. In this article “Considerations for Large Building Water Quality after Extended Stagnation” the authors are not talking about COVID19 per se. They are discussing the hazards associated with stagnant water after building remain closed for a long time because of the …
Moving from hospitals into environmental surveillance for SARS-CoV-2, here looking at detection in wastewater. “SARS-CoV-2 titers in wastewater are higher than expected from clinically confirmed cases“. The title really says it all here… it’s a great demonstration of the utility of wastewater surveillance for this kind of question, although quantification is much harder than just …
Not a pre-print this time but a (presumably) peer-reviewed article about the susceptibility of domesticated animals to SARS-CoV-2. The authors looked at dogs, cats, ferrets, pigs, ducks, and chickens. Basically the virus can infect ferrets and cats pretty well and that with cats, they can potentially get the virus from other cats. Not clear yet …
(h/t to Rich Corsi and Paula Olsiewski for sharing this article on Twitter) I have to admit, while this article falls squarely within our remit of the Microbiology of the Built Environment, it seems a little bit in the obvious category. This is a preprint looking at data from hundreds of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in China …
Another short #COVID19 Preprint with relevance to the built environment came out yesterday. This one from a hospital in Nanjing, China where they collected 107 samples from the air and various surfaces. Most of those were negative (RT qPCR as usual) but most of the positives were found in the bathroom. Abstract below: Abstract …
Just saw this pre-print “COVID-19 Outbreak Associated with Air Conditioning in Restaurant, Guangzhou, China, 2020“. Very short, very to the point. Evidence that droplet transmission happened in this particular outbreak via the ventilation within a building. Abstract below: During January 26–February 10, 2020, an outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus disease in an air-conditioned restaurant …
The American Society for Microbiology has a useful resource on COVID19 and the novel coronavirus. This includes some links, slides, videos, information about ASM activities, and more. See: COVID-19 is a pneumonia-like disease with symptoms including fever, dry cough and shortness of breath that was first identified in Wuhan, China. The disease is caused by …
Another quick COVID19 Journal club in the Built Environment. This study (“Detection of Air and Surface Contamination by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Hospital Rooms of Infected Patients” combined air and surface sampling to look at the distribution of the virus in a healthcare setting with infected patients. This is another RNA-based …
Quick post here. There is a news story about a preprint of possible interest. Scientists report (in the non peer reviewed preprint) that they were able to find evidence for the novel coronavirus in sewage even before cases were reported in the town where the sewage is from. Dutch scientists were able to find the …
There is a good article by Ed Yong in the Atlantic about masks that discusses some of the issues with studying and inferring transmission possibilities regarding COVID19. How the coronavirus travels through the air has become one of the most divisive debates in this pandemic. Source: Everyone Thinks They’re Right About Masks