Aerodynamic Characteristics and RNA Concentration of SARS-CoV-2 Aerosol in Wuhan Hospitals during COVID-19 Outbreak

Yuan Liu; Zhi Ning; Yu Chen; Ming Guo; Yingle Liu; Nirmal Kumar Gali; Li Sun; Yusen Duan; Jing Cai; Dane Westerdahl; Xinjin Liu; Kin-fai Ho; Haidong Kan; Qingyan Fu; Ke Lan

The results from this study provide the first field report on the characteristics of airborne SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan with important implications for the public health prevention and medical staff protection. We call for particular attentions on 1) the proper use and cleaning of toilets (e.g. ventilation and sterilization), as a potential spread source of coronavirus with relatively high risk caused by aerosolization of virus and contamination of surfaces after use; 2) for the general public, the proper use of personal protection measures, such as wearing masks and avoiding busy crowds; 3) the effective sanitization of the high risk area and the use of high level protection masks for medical staff with direct contact with the COVID-19 patients or with long stay in high risk area; 4) the renovation of large stadiums as field hospitals with nature ventilation and protective measures is an effective approach to quarantine and treat mild symptom patients so as to reduce the COVID-19 transmission among the public; 5) the virus may be resuspended from the contaminated protective apparel surface to the air while taking off and from the floor surface with the movement of medical staff. Thus, surface sanitization of the apparel before they are taken off may also help reduce the infection risk for medical staff. Note: * The reported values are virus aerosol deposition rate in copies m -2 hour -1 . # Two batches of sampling were conducted for the sites. Detailed information is shown in Table S1 . a The samples taken during the first batch of sampling from Feb 17 to Feb 24, 2020. b The samples taken during the second batch of sampling on Mar 2, 2020.