A realistic transfer method reveals low risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission via contaminated euro coins and banknotes

Daniel Todt; Toni Luise Meister; Barbora Tamele; John Howes; Dajana Paulmann; Britta Becker; Florian H Brill; Mark Wind; Jack Schijven; Natalie Heinen; Volker Kinast; Baxolele Mhlekude; Christine Goffinet; Adalbert Krawczyk; Jörg Steinmann; Stephanie Pfaender; Yannick Brüggemann; Eike Steinmann

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.102908

A realistic transfer method reveals low risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission via contaminated euro coins and banknotes

iScience. 2021 Aug 20;24(8):102908. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102908. Epub 2021 Jul 26.

Authors

Daniel Todt^{1

2}, Toni Luise Meister¹, Barbora Tamele³, John Howes³, Dajana Paulmann⁴, Britta Becker⁴, Florian H Brill⁴, Mark Wind⁵, Jack Schijven^{6

7}, Natalie Heinen¹, Volker Kinast¹, Baxolele Mhlekude^{8

9}, Christine Goffinet^{8

9}, Adalbert Krawczyk^{10

11}, Jörg Steinmann^{12

13}, Stephanie Pfaender¹, Yannick Brüggemann¹, Eike Steinmann¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Molecular & Medical Virology, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
² European Virus Bioinformatics Center (EVBC), 07743 Jena, Germany.
³ European Central Bank (ECB), 60314 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
⁴ Dr. Brill + Partner GmbH Institute for Hygiene and Microbiology, 28259 Bremen, Germany.
⁵ Cash Policy Department, De Nederlandsche Bank, 1000 Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁶ Department of Statistics, Informatics and Modeling, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, 3720 Bilthoven, the Netherlands.
⁷ Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, 3508 Utrecht, the Netherlands.
⁸ Institute of Virology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany.
⁹ Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), 10117 Berlin, Germany.
¹⁰ Institute for Virology, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45147 Essen, Germany.
¹¹ Department of Infectious Diseases, West German Centre of Infectious Diseases, Universitätsmedizin Essen, University Duisburg-Essen, 45147 Essen, Germany.
¹² Institute of Clinical Hygiene, Medical Microbiology and Infectiology, General Hospital Nürnberg, Paracelsus Medical University, 90419 Nuremberg, Germany.
¹³ Institute of Medical Microbiology, University Hospital of Essen, 45147 Essen, Germany.

Abstract

The current severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has created a significant threat to global health. While respiratory aerosols or droplets are considered as the main route of human-to-human transmission, secretions expelled by infected individuals can also contaminate surfaces and objects, potentially creating the risk of fomite-based transmission. Consequently, frequently touched objects such as paper currency and coins have been suspected as potential transmission vehicle. To assess the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission by banknotes and coins, we examined the stability of SARS-CoV-2 and bovine coronavirus, as surrogate with lower biosafety restrictions, on these different means of payment and developed a touch transfer method to examine transfer efficiency from contaminated surfaces to fingertips. Although we observed prolonged virus stability, our results indicate that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via contaminated coins and banknotes is unlikely and requires high viral loads and a timely order of specific events.

Keywords: Methodology in biological sciences; Microbiology; Virology.