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The advent of severe acute respiratory syndrome and its potential environmental transmission indicates the need for more information on the survival of coronavirus in water and wastewater. The survival of representative coronaviruses, feline infectious peritonitis virus, and human coronavirus 229E was determined in filtered and unfiltered tap water (4 and 23°C) and wastewater (23°C). This was compared to poliovirus 1 under the same test conditions. Inactivation of coronaviruses in the test water was highly dependent on temperature, level of organic matter, and presence of antagonistic bacteria. The time required for the virus titer to decrease 99.9% (T 99.9 ) shows that in tap water, coronaviruses are inactivated faster in water at 23°C (10 days) than in water at 4°C ([100 days). Coronaviruses die off rapidly in wastewater, with T 99.9 values of between 2 and 4 days. Poliovirus survived longer than coronaviruses in all test waters, except the 4°C tap water.

Aims: To determine the transfer efficiency of micro-organisms from fomites to hands and the subsequent transfer from the fingertip to the lip. Methods and Results: Volunteers hands were sampled after the normal usage of fomites seeded with a pooled culture of a Gram-positive bacterium (Micrococcus luteus), a Gramnegative bacterium (Serratia rubidea) and phage PRD-1 (Period A). Activities included wringing out a dishcloth ⁄ sponge, turning on ⁄ off a kitchen faucet, cutting up a carrot, making hamburger patties, holding a phone receiver, and removing laundry from the washing machine. Transfer efficiencies were 38AE47% to 65AE80% and 27AE59% to 40AE03% for the phone receiver and faucet, respectively. Transfer efficiencies from porous fomites were <0AE01%. In most cases, M. luteus was transferred most efficiently, followed by phage PRD-1 and S. rubidea. When the volunteers' fingertips were inoculated with the pooled organisms and held to the lip area (Period B), transfer rates of 40AE99%, 33AE97%, and 33AE90% occurred with M. luteus, S. rubidea, and PRD-1, respectively.