COVID-19 patients in earlier stages exhaled millions of SARS-CoV-2 per hour

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Abstract

Exhaled breath samples had the highest positive rate (26.9%, n=52), followed by surface swabs (5.4%, n=242), and air samples (3.8%, n=26). COVID-19 patients recruited in Beijing exhaled millions of SARS-CoV-2 RNA copies into the air per hour. Exhaled breath emission may play an important role in the COVID-19 transmission.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Clin Infect Dis

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Clin. Infect. Dis

Journal ID (publisher-id): cid

Title: Clinical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America

Publisher: Oxford University Press (US )

ISSN (Print): 1058-4838

ISSN (Electronic): 1537-6591

Publication date (Electronic): 28 August 2020

Electronic Location Identifier: ciaa1283

Affiliations

[1 ] Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Chaoyang District of Beijing , Beijing, China

[2 ] State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control , College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University , Beijing, China

[3 ] Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University , Beijing, China

[4 ] International Laboratory for Air Quality and Heath (ILAQH), WHO Collaborating Centre for Air Quality and Health, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences , Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

[5 ] Center for Health-Related Aerosol Studies, Department of Environmental & Public Health Sciences, University of Cincinnati , Cincinnati, OH, USA

[6 ] Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis, MO, USA

[7 ] Department of Environmental Science and Engineering and Department of Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena , CA 91109, USA

Author notes

Correspondence to: Maosheng Yao, PhD, Boya Distinguished Professor, Peking University, emasil: yao@ 123456pku.edu.cn , Phone: +86 01062767282

These authors contributed equally.

Article

Publisher ID: ciaa1283

DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciaa1283

PMC ID: 7499537

PubMed ID: 32857833

SO-VID: aaea63ca-3add-4f6b-a160-c6a280eb9a72

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