The advent of the global pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) necessitates a thorough study of the stability and transmissibility in the environment. We characterized the stability of SARS-CoV-2 in three water matrices: fresh, tap, and seawater. The minimum infective dose of SARS-CoV-2 in Vero cells was confirmed to be 10³ PFU/mL. The stability of SARS-CoV-2 varied according to the water matrix: infective SARS-CoV-2 was undetectable after treatment with fresh water and seawater, but remained detectable for 2 days in tap water, when starting with an initial concentration of 10⁴ PFU/mL. When the starting concentration was increased to 10⁵ PFU/mL, a similar trend was observed. In addition, viral RNA persisted longer than infectious virus in all water matrices. This study was conducted in stagnant water containing a significantly high titer of virus, thus, human-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through the actual aquatic environment is expected to be rare.

中文翻译：

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多种水基质中严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 稳定性的表征

由严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 引起的全球大流行的出现需要对环境的稳定性和传播性进行彻底研究。我们表征了 SARS-CoV-2 在三种水基质中的稳定性：淡水、自来水和海水。Vero 细胞中 SARS-CoV-2 的最小感染剂量被证实为 10³ PFU/mL。SARS-CoV-2 的稳定性因水基质而异：感染性 SARS-CoV-2 在用淡水和海水处理后检测不到，但在自来水中 2 天后仍可检测到，当初始浓度为 10⁴ PFU 时/毫升。当起始浓度增加到 10⁵ PFU/mL 时，观察到了类似的趋势。此外，在所有水基质中，病毒 RNA 的持续时间都比传染性病毒长。