Independent and Interactive Effects of Environmental Conditions on Aerosolized Surrogate SARS-CoV-2 - Beijing, China, June to September 2020

Yixin Mao; Yueyun Luo; Wenda Zhang; Pei Ding; Xia Li; Fuchang Deng; Kaiqiang Xu; Min Hou; Cheng Ding; Youbin Wang; Zhaomin Dong; Raina MacIntyre; Xiaoyuan Yao; Song Tang; Dongqun Xu

doi:10.46234/ccdcw2022.123

Independent and Interactive Effects of Environmental Conditions on Aerosolized Surrogate SARS-CoV-2 - Beijing, China, June to September 2020

China CDC Wkly. 2022 Jul 1;4(26):565-569. doi: 10.46234/ccdcw2022.123.

Authors

Yixin Mao¹, Yueyun Luo², Wenda Zhang³, Pei Ding¹, Xia Li¹, Fuchang Deng¹, Kaiqiang Xu¹, Min Hou¹, Cheng Ding¹, Youbin Wang¹, Zhaomin Dong^{4

5}, Raina MacIntyre⁶, Xiaoyuan Yao¹, Song Tang⁷, Dongqun Xu¹

Affiliations

¹ China CDC Key Laboratory of Environment and Population Health, National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
² Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
³ University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
⁴ School of Space and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
⁵ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Big Data-Based Precision Medicine, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
⁶ The Kirby Institute, Faculty of Medicine, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁷ Center for Global Health, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.

Abstract

What is already known about this topic?: Environmental factors such as temperature and humidity play important roles in the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) via droplets/aerosols.

What is added by this report?: Higher relative humidity (61%-80%), longer spreading time (120 min), and greater dispersal distance (1 m) significantly reduced SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus loads. There was an interaction effect between relative humidity and spreading time.

What are the implications for public health practice?: The findings contribute to our understanding of the impact of environmental factors on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via airborne droplets/aerosols.

Keywords: Aerosols; COVID-19; Respiratory Droplets; Temperature.

Copyright and License information: Editorial Office of CCDCW, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention 2022.

Grants and funding

Supported by the Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 92043201) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52091544), the Capital’s Funds for Health Improvement and Research (No. 2021-1G-2172), the Young Scholar Scientific Research Foundation of National Institute of Environmental Health (NIEH), Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC, No. 2020YSRF-03), and the COVID-19 Emergency Funding from NIEH, China CDC (No. GWTX05) and Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control, National Health Commission of China (No. WJW2102-01)