Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 in Indoor Air of Sina and Shahid Beheshti Hospitals and Patients' Houses

Abstract

Side by side air sampling was conducted using a PTFE filter membrane as dry sampler and an impinger containing a suitable culture medium as a wet sampler. Most of the samples were collected from two hospitals and few air samples were collected from private houses of non-hospitalized confirmed COVID-19 patients. The collected air samples were analyzed using RT-PCR. The results indicated that all air samples collected from the hospitals were PCR negative for SARS-CoV-2. While two of four air samples collected from the house of non-hospitalized patients were PCR positive. In this study, most of the hospitalized patients had oxygen mask and face mask, and hence this may be a reason for our negative results regarding the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in indoor air of the hospitals, while non-hospitalized patients did not wear oxygen and protective face masks in their houses. Moreover, a very high concentration of particles in the size range of droplet nuclei (< 5 µm) was identified compared to particles in the size range of respiratory droplets (> 5–10 µm) in the areas where patients were hospitalized. It can be concluded that using face mask by patients can prevent the release of viruses into the indoor air, even in hospitals with a high density of patients.