The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Rapid inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 on copper touch surfaces determined using a cell culture infectivity assay

Rapid inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 on copper touch surfaces determined using a cell culture infectivity assay
Rapid inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 on copper touch surfaces determined using a cell culture infectivity assay
COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, was first reported in China in 2019 and has transmitted rapidly around the world, currently responsible for 83 million reported cases and over 1.8 million deaths. The mode of transmission is believed principally to be airborne exposure to respiratory droplets from symptomatic and asymptomatic patients but there is also a risk of the droplets contaminating fomites such as touch surfaces including door handles, stair rails etc, leading to hand pick up and transfer to eyes, nose and mouth. We have previously shown that human coronavirus 229E survives for more than 5 days on inanimate surfaces and another laboratory reproduced this for SARS-CoV-2 this year. However, we showed rapid inactivation of Hu-CoV-229E within 10 minutes on different copper surfaces while the other laboratory indicated this took 4 hours for SARS-CoV-2. So why the difference? We have repeated our work with SARS-CoV-2 and can confirm that this coronavirus can be inactivated on copper surfaces in as little as 1 minute. We discuss why the 4 hour result may be technically flawed. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
Bryant, Catherine
d53ab6c9-909d-43cb-84fc-3e197df377f3
Wilks, Sandra A
86c1f41a-12b3-451c-9245-b1a21775e993
Keevil, William
cb7de0a7-ce33-4cfa-af52-07f99e5650eb
Bryant, Catherine
d53ab6c9-909d-43cb-84fc-3e197df377f3
Wilks, Sandra A
86c1f41a-12b3-451c-9245-b1a21775e993
Keevil, William
cb7de0a7-ce33-4cfa-af52-07f99e5650eb

Bryant, Catherine, Wilks, Sandra A and Keevil, William (2021) Rapid inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 on copper touch surfaces determined using a cell culture infectivity assay. bioRxiv, [2021.01.02.424974]. (doi:10.1101/2021.01.02.424974).

Record type: Article

Abstract

COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, was first reported in China in 2019 and has transmitted rapidly around the world, currently responsible for 83 million reported cases and over 1.8 million deaths. The mode of transmission is believed principally to be airborne exposure to respiratory droplets from symptomatic and asymptomatic patients but there is also a risk of the droplets contaminating fomites such as touch surfaces including door handles, stair rails etc, leading to hand pick up and transfer to eyes, nose and mouth. We have previously shown that human coronavirus 229E survives for more than 5 days on inanimate surfaces and another laboratory reproduced this for SARS-CoV-2 this year. However, we showed rapid inactivation of Hu-CoV-229E within 10 minutes on different copper surfaces while the other laboratory indicated this took 4 hours for SARS-CoV-2. So why the difference? We have repeated our work with SARS-CoV-2 and can confirm that this coronavirus can be inactivated on copper surfaces in as little as 1 minute. We discuss why the 4 hour result may be technically flawed. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 2 January 2021

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 446150
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/446150
PURE UUID: b0113f9f-0ba8-494e-8803-9abf6a05dbab
ORCID for Sandra A Wilks: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4134-9415
ORCID for William Keevil: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1917-7706

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 22 Jan 2021 17:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:54

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Catherine Bryant
Author: Sandra A Wilks ORCID iD
Author: William Keevil ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×