Evidence of the presence of SARS‐CoV‐2 virus in atmospheric air and surfaces of a dedicated COVID hospital

Dubey, Abhishek; Kotnala, Garima; Mandal, Tuhin K.; Sonkar, Subash C.; Singh, Vijay K.; Guru, Sameer A.; Bansal, Aastha; Irungbam, Monica; Husain, Farah; Goswami, Binita; Kotnala, Ravindra K.; Saxena, Sonal; Sharma, Sudhir K.; Saxena, Kirti N.; Sharma, Chhemendra; Kumar, Suresh; Aswal, Dinesh K.; Manchanda, Vikas; Koner, Bidhan C.

The present study was conducted from July 1, 2020 to September 25, 2020 in a dedicated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) hospital in Delhi, India to provide evidence for the presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) virus in atmospheric air and surfaces of the hospital wards. Swabs from hospital surfaces (patient's bed, ward floor, and nursing stations area) and suspended particulate matter in ambient air were collected by a portable air sampler from the medicine ward, intensive care unit, and emergency ward admitting COVID‐19 patients. By performing reverse‐transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) for E‐gene and RdRp gene, SARS‐CoV‐2 virus was detected from hospital surfaces and particulate matters from the ambient air of various wards collected at 1 and 3‐m distance from active COVID‐19 patients. The presence of the virus in the air beyond a 1‐m distance from the patients and surfaces of the hospital indicates that the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus has the potential to be transmitted by airborne and surface routes from COVID‐19 patients to health‐care workers working in COVID‐19 dedicated hospital. This warrants that precautions against airborne and surface transmission of COVID‐19 in the community should be taken when markets, industries, educational institutions, and so on, reopen for normal activities.