#COVID19 Preprint Journal Club: “Toilets dominate environmental detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus in a hospital”

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 …

Short study suggesting aerosol transmission of #COVID19 via air-conditioning

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 …

#COVID19 Journal club at #microBEnet. SARS-CoV-2 in Hospital Rooms of Infected Patients

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 …

A #COVID19 in the Built Environment preprint: shedding in a hospital

A preprint came out yesterday entitled “Transmission Potential of SARS-CoV-2 in Viral Shedding Observed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center“.  They looked at actual virus shed by patients in a healthcare setting (as opposed to artificial virus aerosols).  They found widespread contamination of surfaces and objects in the room… but all of the detection …

Detection of viral RNA, detection of infectious virus, and transmission risk are not interchangeable #COVID19

A short rant, precipitated by a Letter to JAMA that I was reading today. Detection of viral RNA DOES NOT EQUAL detection of infectious virus particles which DOES NOT EQUAL transmission risk.   Are all these things related? Of course.  Are they the same thing?  NO. This was prominent in the news recently with the finding …

The #microbenet and BioBE Center stab at a review of COVID-19 and the Built Environment

(updated 4/7/20 with revised preprint and publication information) So late last week, the folks at the BioBE Center at the University of Oregon contacted us wanting to write a review of built environment considerations related to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.  We worked furiously on it for a couple of days and through the …

#COVID19 modes of transmission and fomites (Twitter comments)

I have been trying to collect information about the new coronavirus and transmission via fomites (objects or materials such as door handles, clothing, phones, etc).  Yesterday I posted to Twitter asking for input and got a large collection of useful responses. See these two tweets and the responses to them.  I highlight some key responses …