The research letter was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and comes after cases in China where the pathogen spread extensively through hospitals, infecting dozens of health care workers and other patients.
Researchers at Singapore’s National Centre for Infectious Diseases and DSO National Laboratories looked at the cases of three patients who were held in isolation rooms between late January and early February.
The room of one patient was sampled before routine cleaning, while the rooms of the other two patients were sampled after disinfection measures.
The patient whose room was sampled before cleaning had the mildest symptoms of the three, only experiencing a cough. The other two had moderate symptoms: both had coughing and fever, one experienced shortness of breath and the other was coughing up lung mucus.
Three of the five toilet sites were also contaminated, including the sink, door handle and toilet bowl – more evidence that stool can be a route of transmission.
Air samples tested negative, but swabs taken from air exhaust outlets were positive — which suggests that virus-laden droplets may be carried by air flows and deposited on vents.
SARS-CoV-R is the official name of the pathogen.
The World Health Organization said Wednesday the mortality rate was 3.4 percent, revising upward previous estimates. AFP

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