Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of ambient or altered environmental conditions on the inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 applied to materials common in libraries, archives and museums.
Methods and results: Porous and non-porous materials (e.g. paper, plastic protective book cover) were inoculated with approximately 1 × 105 TCID50 SARS CoV-2 (USA-WA1/2020), dried, placed within test chamber in either a stacked or unstacked configuration, and exposed to environmental conditions ranging from 4 to 29°C at 40 ± 10% relative humidity. The amount of infectious SARS-CoV-2 was then assessed at various timepoints from 0 to 10 days. Ambient conditions resulted in varying inactivation rates per material type. Virus inactivation rate decreased when materials were stacked or at colder temperatures. Virus inactivation rate increased when materials were unstacked or at warmer temperatures.
Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 at ambient conditions resulted in the inactivation of virus below limit of quantitation (LOQ) for all materials by Day 8. Warmer temperatures, for a subset of materials, increased SARS-CoV-2 inactivation, and all were <LOQ by Day 3.
Significance and impact of the study: These results provide information for the library, archives and museum community regarding the inactivation of SARS-CoV-2, showing that inactivation is possible using prescribed environmental conditions and is a potential method of decontamination for items not compatible with common liquid disinfectants.
Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; archives; books; decontamination; inactivation; libraries; museums; paper; persistence; plastic.
© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Applied Microbiology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society for Applied Microbiology.