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Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic urges for cheap, reliable, and rapid technologies for disinfection and decontamination. One frequently proposed method is ultraviolet (UV)-C irradiation. UV-C doses necessary to achieve inactivation of high-titre SARS-CoV-2 are poorly defined.

Aim: We investigated whether short exposure of SARS-CoV-2 to UV-C irradiation sufficiently reduces viral infectivity and doses necessary to achieve an at least 6-log reduction in viral titres.

Methods: Using a box and two handheld systems designed to decontaminate objects and surfaces, we evaluated the efficacy of 254 nm UV-C treatment to inactivate surface dried high-titre SARS-CoV-2.

Results: Drying for 2 hours did not have a major impact on the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2, indicating that exhaled virus in droplets or aerosols stays infectious on surfaces for at least a certain amount of time. Short exposure of high titre surface dried virus (3–5*10^6 IU/ml) with UV-C light (16 mJ/cm2) resulted in a total inactivation of SARS-CoV-2. Dose-dependency experiments revealed that 3.5 mJ/cm2 were still effective to achieve a > 6-log reduction in viral titres, whereas 1.75 mJ/cm2 lowered infectivity only by one order of magnitude.

Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 is rapidly inactivated by relatively low doses of UV-C irradiation and the relationship between UV-C dose and log-viral titre reduction of surface residing SARS-CoV-2 is nonlinear. Our findings emphasize that it is necessary to assure sufficient and complete exposure of all relevant areas by integrated UV-C doses of at least 3.5 mJ/cm2 at 254 nm. Altogether, UV-C treatment is an effective non-chemical option to decontaminate surfaces from high-titre infectious SARS-CoV-2.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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A corrected article has been published for this content:
Erratum for Euro Surveill. 2021;26(42)
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2021-10-21
2024-12-22
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.42.2001718
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Rapid, dose-dependent and efficient inactivation of surface dried SARS-CoV-2 by 254 nm UV-C irradiation
<p class="citation"> <span>Citation style for this article:</span> <span class="meta-value authors"> <a href="/search?value1=Natalia+Ruetalo&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Ruetalo Natalia</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Ramona+Businger&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Businger Ramona</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Michael+Schindler&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Schindler Michael</a></span>. Rapid, dose-dependent and efficient inactivation of surface dried SARS-CoV-2 by 254 nm UV-C irradiation. <a href="/content/ecdc">Euro Surveill.</a> 2021;26(42):pii=2001718. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.42.2001718" title="doi link" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.42.2001718</a> <span class="ES_Article_citation"> <span class="generated">Received</span>: 23 Sept 2020;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="generated">Accepted</span>: 20 Apr 2021 </span> </p>
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.42.2001718
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.42.2001718
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