Sports balls as potential SARS-CoV-2 transmission vectors

• Main Authors: Michel Pelisser, Joe Thompson, Dasha Majra, Sonia Youhanna, Justin Stebbing, Peter Davies
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-11-01
• Series: Public Health in Practice
• Subjects: Sports; SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; Transmission; Cricket; Football
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666535220300288

Objects passed from one player to another have not been assessed for their ability to transmit severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We found that the surface of sport balls, notably a football, tennis ball, golf ball, and cricket ball could not harbour inactivated virus when it was swabbed onto the surface, even for 30 ​s. However, when high concentrations of 5000 ​dC/mL and 10,000 ​dC/mL are directly pipetted onto the balls, it could be detected after for short time periods. Sports objects can only harbour inactivated SARS-CoV-2 under specific, directly transferred conditions, but wiping with a dry tissue or moist ‘baby wipe’ or dropping and rolling the balls removes all detectable viral traces. This has helpful implications to sporting events.