Dried SARS-CoV-2 virus maintains infectivity to Vero E6 cells for up to 48 h

Hyesun Jang; Ted M Ross

doi:10.1016/j.vetmic.2020.108907

Dried SARS-CoV-2 virus maintains infectivity to Vero E6 cells for up to 48 h

Vet Microbiol. 2020 Dec:251:108907. doi: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2020.108907. Epub 2020 Oct 23.

Authors

Hyesun Jang¹, Ted M Ross²

Affiliations

¹ Center for Vaccines and Immunology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
² Center for Vaccines and Immunology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA; Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA. Electronic address: tedross@uga.edu.

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a great concern on both public and veterinary health. Multiple studies showed that the SARS-CoV-2 can persist for few days in wet condition, but it has not been clear whether the virus can maintain the infectivity in dry condition. Thus, we measured the infectious titer of dried SARS-CoV-2 (10⁴ pfu/25 μL droplet) at 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 24, and 48 h. Strikingly, the dried SARS-CoV-2 virus did not lose the infectivity to Vero E6 cells for up to 48 h. Our findings warrants that the drying cannot replace the surface disinfection to prevent transmission via common vehicle or nosocomial infection. Future studies can apply our experimental setting to test the efficacy of diverse disinfecting procedures.

Keywords: Infectivity of SARS-CoV-2; Prevention of COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Stability of dried enveloped viruses.

MeSH terms

Animals
COVID-19
Cell Line
Chlorocebus aethiops
Desiccation*
Glass*
Microbial Viability*
SARS-CoV-2 / pathogenicity
SARS-CoV-2 / physiology*
Time Factors
Vero Cells
Virus Replication