Adherence of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant to a surgical mask and N95 respirators

Ana C Lorenzo-Leal; Selvarani Vimalanathan; Horacio Bach

doi:10.2144/fsoa-2022-0025

Adherence of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant to a surgical mask and N95 respirators

Future Sci OA. 2022 Aug 8;8(7):FSO808. doi: 10.2144/fsoa-2022-0025. eCollection 2022 Aug.

Authors

Ana C Lorenzo-Leal¹, Selvarani Vimalanathan^{1

2}, Horacio Bach¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3Z6, Canada.
² Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3Z6, Canada.

Abstract

The use of facial protection has been adopted globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We dissected four respirators and one surgical mask into layers to determine whether or not the virus adheres to them. These individual layers were contaminated with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant, and its release by vortexing was performed. Samples were used to infect Vero cells, and a plaque assay was used to evaluate the adherence of the virus to the layers. Results showed that a cumulative log reduction of the layers reduced the load of the virus by at least sixfold. Our study confirms the effectiveness of facial protection in reducing the transmission and/or infection of SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus; facial protection; mask; respirator.