Detection of Environmental Spread of SARS-CoV-2 and Associated Patient Characteristics

Charles T Semelka; David A Ornelles; Nathaniel S O'Connell; Emma C Parsons; Maria W Blevins; Lauren E Ivey; Werner E Bischoff

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofab107

Detection of Environmental Spread of SARS-CoV-2 and Associated Patient Characteristics

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021 Mar 6;8(6):ofab107. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofab107. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Authors

Charles T Semelka¹, David A Ornelles², Nathaniel S O'Connell³, Emma C Parsons², Maria W Blevins⁴, Lauren E Ivey⁵, Werner E Bischoff⁴

Affiliations

¹ Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston Salem, North Carolina, USA.
² Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston Salem, North Carolina, USA.
³ Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston Salem, North Carolina, USA.
⁴ Section on Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston Salem, North Carolina, USA.
⁵ Internal Medicine Residency, Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston Salem, North Carolina, USA.

Abstract

Understanding transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 informs infection prevention practices. Air sampling devices were placed in patient hospital rooms for consecutive collections with and without masks. With patient mask use, no virus was detected in the room. High viral load and fewer days from symptom onset were associated with viral particulate dispersion.

Keywords: COVID-19; infection prevention and hospital epidemiology; viral pneumonia.

Grants and funding

T32 AG033534/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States