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Feasibility of a High-Volume Filter Sampler for Detecting SARS-Cov-2 RNA in COVID-19 Patient Rooms
KAMALJEET KAUR, Amanda Wilson, Rachael Jones, Kerry Kelly, University of Utah
Abstract Number: 425
Working Group: Infectious Aerosols in the Age of COVID-19
Abstract
The presence of aerosolized virus particles in COVID-19 positive patients’ rooms are a serious issue in healthcare as it places healthcare providers at risk of possible infection. To better understand this risk, researchers have been collecting aerosol samples in high-risk areas, and many different methodologies, with differing uncertainties regarding the feasibility and reliability, have been implemented. This study evaluated the feasibility of using a high-volume filter sampler for detecting SARS-Cov-2 in a medical intensive care unit (MICU), and in a COVID-19 ward, specifically in patients’ rooms and the nurse’s station. The high-volume sampler collects air at a flow rate of 200 LPM through a filter, which later was extracted in an elution buffer, followed by multi-plex nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect for SARS-CoV-2-RNA. The instrument was compared to the BioSpot-VIVAS, known for high efficiency in the collection of virus-containing bioaerosols. One of 28 (high-volume filter sampler) and zero out of 6 (BioSpot-VIVAS) samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2. The high-volume filter sampler was more portable and less intrusive in healthcare environments than the BioSpot-VIVAS. However, limits of detection and virus recovery efficiencies remain unknown. This study will inform future work to evaluate the reliability of these types of instruments and inform best practices for their use in healthcare environments for SARS-CoV-2 air sampling.