SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Risk from sports Equipment (STRIKE)
Authors: Edwards Thomas , Kay Grant A , Aljayyoussi Ghaith , Owen Sophie I , Harland Andy R , Pierce Nicholas S , Calder James D F , Fletcher Tom E , Adams Emily R 
Published: February 2021

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the potential of shared sporting equipment as
transmission vectors of SARS-CoV-2 during the reintroduction of sports such
as soccer, rugby, cricket, tennis, golf and gymnastics.

SETTING

Laboratory based live SARS-CoV-2 virus study

INTERVENTIONS

Ten different types of sporting equipment were inoculated with 40μl
droplets containing clinically relevant high and low concentrations of live
SARS-CoV-2 virus. Materials were then swabbed at time points relevant to
sports (1, 5, 15, 30, 90 minutes). The amount of live SARS-CoV-2 recovered
at each time point was enumerated using viral plaque assays, and viral decay
and half-life was estimated through fitting linear models to log transformed
data from each material.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

The primary outcome measure was quantification of retrievable SARS-CoV-2
virus from each piece of equipment at pre-determined time points.

RESULTS

At one minute, SARS-CoV-2 virus was recovered in only seven of the ten
types of equipment with the low dose inoculum, one at five minutes and none
at 15 minutes. Retrievable virus dropped significantly for all materials
tested using the high dose inoculum with mean recovery of virus falling to
0.74% at 1 minute, 0.39% at 15 minutes and 0.003% at 90 minutes. Viral
recovery, predicted decay, and half-life varied between materials with
porous surfaces limiting virus transmission.

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that there is an exponential reduction in SARS-CoV-2
recoverable from a range of sports equipment after a short time period, and
virus is less transferrable from materials such as a tennis ball, red
cricket ball and cricket glove. Given this rapid loss of viral load and the
fact that transmission requires a significant inoculum to be transferred
from equipment to the mucous membranes of another individual it seems
unlikely that sports equipment is a major cause for transmission of
SARS-CoV-2. These findings have important policy implications in the context
of the pandemic and may promote other infection control measures in sports
to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and urge sports equipment
manufacturers to identify surfaces that may or may not be likely to retain
transferable virus.

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ON THIS TOPIC

Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 between individuals playing
sport may be via respiratory droplets when in close
proximity to an infected person.

SARS-CoV-2 remains viable on a variety of surfaces
resulting in recommendations to reduce the sharing of sports
equipment such as tennis balls when sports were
re-opened.

WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS

The recoverable SARS-CoV-2 viral load reduces
exponentially with mean viral load of all materials less
than 1% of the original inoculum after 1 minute.

The type of material has a significant effect on
SARS-CoV-2 transfer, with less virus transferred from porous
materials such as bovine leather or nylon woven
cloth.

Policies on infection control measures in sport may be
better directed towards areas other than reducing the
sharing of sports equipment.

Sports equipment manufacturers may consider using
materials that absorb or retain virus as a way of reducing
viral transmission from sports equipment.