Solar UV$-$B$/$A radiation is highly effective in inactivating SARS$-$CoV$-$2
Abstract
Solar UVC photons do not reach Earth's surface, but are known to be endowed with germicidal properties that are also effective on viruses. The effect of softer UVB and UVA photons, which copiously reach the Earth's surface, on viruses are instead little studied, particularly on singlestranded RNA viruses. Here we combine our measurements of the action spectrum of Covid19 in response to UV light, Solar irradiation measurements on Earth during the SARSCoV2 pandemics, worldwide recorded Covid19 mortality data and our 'SolarPump' diffusive model of epidemics to show that (a) UVBA photons have a powerful virucidal effect on the singlestranded RNA virus Covid19 and that (b) the Solar radiation that reaches temperate regions of the Earth at noon during summers, is sufficient to inactivate 63\perc of virions in openspace concentrations (1.5 x 103 TCID50mL, higher than typical aerosol) in less than 2 min. We conclude that the characteristic seasonality imprint displayed worldwide by the SARSCov2 mortality timeseries throughout the diffusion of the outbreak (with temperate regions showing clear seasonal trends and equatorial regions suffering, on average, a systematically lower mortality), might have been efficiently set by the different intensity of UVBA Solar radiation hitting different Earth's locations at different times of the year. Our results suggest that Solar UVBA play an important role in planning strategies of confinement of the epidemics, which should be worked out and set up during springsummer months and fully implemented during lowsolarirradiation periods.
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Cite
@article{arxiv.2006.03454,
title = {Solar UV$-$B$/$A radiation is highly effective in inactivating SARS$-$CoV$-$2},
author = {F. Nicastro and G. Sironi and E. Antonello and A. Bianco and M. Biasin and J. R. Brucato and I. Ermolli and G. Pareschi and M. Salvati and P. Tozzi and D. Trabattoni and M. Clerici},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.03454},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
11 pages + 3 pages supplementary information