COVID-19 can survive in dust for up to a month - study
They found that almost all of the dust samples (97%) contained undecayed SARS-CoV-2, the disease that causes COVID-19, up to four weeks after collection using PCR tests.
By ZACHARY KEYSERICHILOV HOSPITAL team members wearing protective gear earlier this year as they work in the coronavirus department of the Tel Aviv hospital.(photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
Indoor dust could be a way of surveilling coronavirus outbreaks, according to a recent study.The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study, published in medRxiv, notes that coronavirus can survive in indoor dust for up to a month.The study authors noted that the research did not measure the virus' viability or transmissibility, but focused on the purpose of surveilling viral compounds. Therefore, it is unsure if the virus could still be passed on to humans while it lives in the dust."Overall, this work demonstrates that bulk floor dust is a potentially useful matrix for long-term monitoring of viral disease outbreaks in high-risk populations and buildings," the research stated.The researchers worked with employees responsible for cleaning isolation rooms for COVID-19 patients at Ohio State University, and also collected samples from homes with positive cases.They found that almost all of the dust samples (97%) contained undecayed SARS-CoV-2, the disease that causes COVID-19, up to four weeks after collection using PCR tests.Monitoring dust within "high-concern buildings" such as nursing homes and apartment complexes could allow for broader surveillance of coronavirus as scientists already do for wastewater – hoping to compliment this environmental surveillance tactic with a more concentrated approach."Wastewater detection may be more beneficial at larger population scales covering thousands of individuals in a community, and one infected individual may be detectable among 100 to 2,000,000 individuals," the study authors wrote."Indoor dust may be useful in areas with smaller numbers of high-risk individuals where more specific outbreak identification is critical. Additionally, not all individuals secrete virus in stool," they said."Indoor dust sampling may also be less expensive and be easier to implement, with simplified sample collection and no pre-concentration steps of samples required."
Therefore, this tactic would be best applied to nursing homes or other at-risk populations."In nursing homes, for example, you're still going to need to know how coronavirus is spreading inside the building," lead author of the study Nicole Renninger told The Weather Channel. "For surveillance purposes, you need to know if you are picking up an outbreak that's going on right now."
