Editorial: Biosafety and Biosecurity Approaches to Counter SARS-CoV-2: From Detection to Best Practices and Risk Assessment Volume 2 (2023)

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) is the causative agents of Coronavirus Disease-19, commonly referred to as COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 was discovered in 2019 and is currently responsible for a global pandemic that has resulted in more than 642.7 million cases and 6.625 million deaths worldwide as of November 19 th , 2022. However, there have been a large number of asymptomatic cases that have gone unreported, which likely results in an overestimation of the case fatality rate of 1.03%. It is also important to note that many deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 have gone unreported. The current observation of the virus's ability to mutate and adapt begs the need for enhanced biosafety and biosecurity measures to ensure that the laboratory work being performed does not contribute to laboratory-acquired infections (LAI) or give rise to new variant(s) that are accidentally introduced into the community through a LAI. To ensure this, there is a critical need for laboratories conducting such work to perform risk assessments and implement appropriate risk mitigation strategies along with safe and best laboratory practices leveraging engineering and administrative controls, personal protective equipment, etc. To this end, In this special issue, Buhr et. al., shared critical information about 14 ultraviolet decontamination technologies and their efficacy against a SARS-CoV-2 surrogate that was dried onto different surfaces for laboratory and field testing. Their studies showed that ultraviolet (UV) decontamination technologies exhibited a wide range of variability with respect to dosage, efficacy, hazards and UV output over time and that each UV device needed independent technical measurements and assessment for product development prior to and during use. Rapid diagnostics and self-isolation are a critical element for preventing disease transmission. The need for an inexpensive, rapid, readily assessable, and easy-touse test will be of tremendous benefit for disease mitigation and controlling spread. Zhang et. al., discussed the essential features of SARS-CoV-2, compared existing detection methods and focused on the principles, merits and limitations of Lateral Flow Assays (LFAs) that detect viral nucleic acids, antigens and/or corresponding antibodies. They also provided a comprehensive assessment of the LFA technology and insights into preventing and curbing the COVID-19 pandemic.One of the challenges the world faced during the pandemic was the demand for respiratory protection. Scientist from around the world have worked diligently to overcome shortfalls by decontaminating and reusing masks. Obrova et. al., compared the different decontamination strategies (e.g., non-thermal plasma [NTP]) to other methods such as dry heat and ultraviolet light) for decontaminating personal protective equipment such as respirators, which are designed to provide high efficiency filtration. They showed that NTP treatment completely inactivated SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens such as Influenza A, Rhinovirus and Adenovirus. They also showed that unlike methods such as autoclaving, NTP did not influence the filtering efficiency nor the microstructure of the filter membrane and demonstrated that NTP is a powerful technique for decontamination of sensitive equipment such as respirators and protective filters for reuse.Biosafety and biosecurity serve as the cornerstone for laboratory containment of highly transmissible and pathogenic microorganism to protect public health by preventing the next outbreak, epidemic or pandemic through unintentional or accidental introduction.Although we have learned a lot over the past several years about SARS-CoV-2 and its associated disease, COVID-19, there still remains a need for better and more efficacious medical countermeasure, supportive therapy, diagnostics and detection technology, decontamination technology, surveillance methods, and disease containment measures if we we're to eradicate or efficiently manage this disease.Finally, we would like to acknowledge the contributions and thank the many scientists around the world for their work in enhancing our knowledge about this disease and for their dedication to public health.