A safe and effective sample collection method for assessment of SARS-CoV-2 in aerosol samples

The role of airborne particles in spread of remains largely unexplored. It has been speculated that the novel corona virus can survive for extended periods in aerosols and its interaction with other viral communities is responsible for additional virulence and infectivity. Therefore, investigations on adsorption, survival, and behavior of the COVID-19 virus within the aerosol community are needed to help understand its spread. In order to explore its spread via aerosols an immediate need is to develop efficient cost-effective sampling methodology for viral aerosols. In view of this we performed the aerosol sample collection through a simplified protocol adapted for its use in laboratory research with minimal biosafety regulations level 1 biosafety level precautions and facilities. In this setup, the air was passed through three gas glass bottles filled with TRIzol @ 30 L(−1). The latter served the purpose of collecting and lysing the viral particles trapped in the air. The collected lysate can be transported safely to biosafety regulations level 1 class biosafety level laboratories for downstream processing of ribonucleic acid purification and further analysis such as quantitative polymerase chain reaction or next generation sequencing-based applications. We tested the viability status of the collected aerosols in TRIzol and discovered 90%–100% of the microbial load to be lysed. We expect to recover approximately 1 µg of total ribonucleic acid from 3.6 m(3) of aerosols that was successfully amplified using bacterial, fungal, and viral primers. Hence, this technique is safe for use in laboratories that are not complying with the stringent requirements of a virology laboratory.