Low-nicotine and nicotine-free cigarettes are commercially available under the brand-name Quest®.

Highlights Coronavirus on workplace environmental surfaces is associated with presence of asymptomatic spreaders and can be used to verify effectiveness of COVID-19 control practices. Workplace locations with several positive Coronavirus contaminated surfaces were 10 times more likely to have SARS-CoV-2 employees than locations with few or no contaminated surfaces. Environmental surface testing results can be used to inform the need for employee testing.

No abstract

Detecting all workplace asymptomatic COVID-19 virus spreaders would require daily testing of employees, which is not practical. Over a two week period, nine workplace locations were chosen to test employees for SARS-CoV-2 infection (841 tests) and high-frequency-touch point environmental surfaces (5,500 tests) for Coronavirus using Eurofins COVID-19 SentinelTM RT-PCR methods. Of the 9 locations, 3 had one or employees infected with SARS-CoV-2, neither of whom had symptoms at the time of testing nor developed symptoms. Locations with Coronavirus contaminated surfaces were 10 times more likely to have clinically positive employees than locations with no or very few positive surfaces. Break room chairs, workbenches, and door handles were the most frequently contaminated surfaces. Coronavirus RNA was detected at very low concentrations (RT-PCR 34 to 38 Cq). Environmental monitoring can be used to validate intervention strategies and be useful to verify the effectiveness of such strategies on a regular basis.