{"doi":"10.1101/2022.12.22.22283816","title":"SARS-CoV-2 RNA and viable virus contamination of hospital emergency department surfaces and association with patient COVID-19 status and aerosol generating procedures","abstract":"Abstract Background Infectious aerosols and droplets generated by SARS-CoV-2–positive patient aerosol generating procedures (AGPs), coughing, or exhalation could potentially contaminate surfaces, leading to indirect SARS-CoV-2 spread via fomites. Our objective was to determine SARS-CoV-2 surface contamination frequency in Emergency Department (ED) patient rooms with respect to patient SARS-CoV-2 status and AGP receipt. Methods Swabs were collected from fixed surfaces or equipment in the rooms of patients under investigation for COVID-19 or known to be SARS-CoV-2-positive. Environmental swabs were tested for SARS-CoV-2 RNA by RT-qPCR; RNA-positive samples were cultured in Vero E6 cells. Room contamination was also evaluated by clinical severity of COVID-19 and time since symptom onset. Results In total, 202 rooms were sampled: 42 SARS-CoV-2–positive AGP patient rooms, 45 non-AGP SARS-CoV-2–positive patient rooms, and 115 SARS-CoV-2–negative AGP patient rooms. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected on 36 (3.6%) surfaces from 29 (14.4%) rooms. RNA contamination was detected more frequently in rooms occupied by non-AGP SARS-CoV-2– positive patients than SARS-CoV-2-positive AGP patients (28.9% vs 14.3%, p=0.078). Infectious virus was cultured from one non-AGP SARS-CoV-2-positive patient room. There was no significant difference in room positivity according to COVID-19 severity or time since symptom onset. Conclusion SARS-CoV-2 RNA contamination of ED room surfaces was highest and most frequent in rooms occupied by SARS-CoV-2–positive patients who did not undergo an AGP, which may be attributable to disease stage and viral shedding; however, there was no difference in room contamination according to COVID-19 severity or time since symptom onset.","journal":"medRxiv","year":2022,"id":313899,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.958,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1012914,"name":"Elliana S. Barbell","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1012915,"name":"D. F. Barber","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":434074,"name":"Suzanne E. Dahlberg","orcid":"0000-0001-5139-831X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":599689,"name":"Robert Heimer","orcid":"0000-0003-0589-6697","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":702518,"name":"Karen Jubanyik","orcid":"0000-0001-5256-7744","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":516789,"name":"Vivek Parwani","orcid":"0000-0001-5610-7323","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":257769,"name":"Melinda M. Pettigrew","orcid":"0000-0001-8145-7536","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":575190,"name":"Jason M. Tanner","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":452162,"name":"Andrew Ulrich","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":435359,"name":"Martina Wade","orcid":"0000-0003-2898-1296","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":105767,"name":"Anne L. Wyllie","orcid":"0000-0001-6015-0279","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1012601,"name":"Devyn Yolda-Carr","orcid":"0000-0002-2326-5429","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":560592,"name":"Richard A. Martinello","orcid":"0000-0002-0355-9200","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":475168,"name":"Windy Tanner","orcid":"0000-0002-7487-4136","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":283128,"name":"Scott C. Roberts","orcid":"0000-0001-7348-6716","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":16,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:33:48.490749Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}