Authors
John Gibson, Betty P Poon, Jessica Lam, Azmiri Sultana, Natasha Christie-Holmes, Samira Mubareka, Scott D Gray-Owen, Ramin Farnood
Publication date
2023/7/11
Journal
ACS ES&T Engineering
Volume
3
Issue
8
Pages
1159-1164
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Description
One method that can help slow the spread of coronaviruses is disinfection with UV light. The Delta and Omicron variants of the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) have come to dominate the later stages of the pandemic due to their higher rates of transmission. In this work, it is shown that a 17% higher UV254 dose is required for the disinfection of Delta and Omicron variants when compared to the ancestral strain of SARS-CoV-2. The UV254 disinfection rate constants for SARS-CoV-2 and the Delta and Omicron variants were found to be 1.4 ± 0.3, 1.1 ± 0.2, and 1.1 ± 0.2 cm2/mJ, respectively. The rate constants of Delta and Omicron were statistically different from the ancestral strain of SARS-CoV-2 at the 95% confidence level based on at least three replicate experiments. It is suggested that the reason for this difference is the absence of repeating uracil (U) bases in the genome of the two variants. The UV254 sensitivity …
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