Viable SARS-CoV-2 detected in the air of hospital rooms of patients with COVID-19 with an early infection

Objectives: This study assessed the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in the air of hospital rooms occupied by patients with COVID-19 who had viable SARS-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal (NP) samples in early infection.Methods: Between July and October 2021, NP swabs were collected from 20 patients with early SARSCoV-2 infection admitted to a tertiary hospital in Japan. Air samples were collected from their rooms, tested for SARS-CoV-2 RNA, and cultured to determine potential infectivity.Results: The NP swab samples of 18 patients were positive for viable SARS-CoV-2 (median concentration: 4.0 x 10 5 tissue culture infectious dose 50/ml). In the air samples, viral RNA (median concentration: 1.1 x 10 5 copies/m3) was detected in 12/18 (67%) patients, and viable virus (median concentration: 8.9 x 10 2 tissue culture infectious dose 50/m 3 ) was detected in 5/18 (28%) patients. The median time between illness onset and sampling was 3 days. The RNA concentration was significantly higher in samples wherein viable SARS-CoV-2 was detected than in samples in which viable virus was not detected ( P-value = 0.027).Conclusion: Viable SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in the air surrounding patients with early SARS-CoV-2 infection. Health care workers should pay attention to infection control when caring for patients with early SARS-CoV-2 infection.& COPY; 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )