Remote Aerosol SARS-CoV-2 Transmission from Clinical COVID Patients to Rodent Sentinels

We performed studies investigating the feasibility of human to animal (H2A) model system to test whether patient generated respiratory bioaerosols hold infective capacity when traversing long distance airborne transport within the built environment. South African patients, clinically confirmed by facemask sampling to be exhaling SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequence, were recruited and housed for multiple days in a clinical ward with a uniquely designed building ventilation system continuously channeling exhaust airflow to individual microisolator animal caging units located proximal but segregated from clinic space (University of Pretoria AIR facility).