Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 environmental contamination in hospital rooms is uncommon using viral culture techniques.

Warren, Bobby G; Nelson, Alicia; Barrett, Aaron; Addison, Bechtler; Graves, Amanda; Binder, Raquel; Gray, Gregory; Lewis, Sarah et al. · Clin Infect Dis · 2022

cross_sectional · Level IV

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Abstract

We assessed environmental contamination of inpatient rooms housing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in a dedicated COVID-19 unit. Contamination with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 was found on 5.5% (19/347) of surfaces via reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and 0.3% (1/347) of surfaces via cell culture. Environmental contamination is uncommon in hospitals rooms; RNA presence is not a specific indicator of infectious virus.

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