VIRAL TRANSPORTATION IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC: INACTIVATED VIRUS TRANSPORTATION SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTED FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION AND HANDLING AT DIAGNOSTICS LABORATORIES

To the Editor.-The potential for a laboratory-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection, causing COVID-19 disease, from accidental exposure grows as the pandemic progresses, making the biosafety of samples during transportation and laboratory diagnosis vital. [...]the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) recommendation to transport diagnostic specimens in viral transport media (VTM) that preserve viability and infectivity of the SARSCoV-2 virus is unexpected.1 Additionally, some health care professionals and transport personnel may not be aware that they are handling specimens with live viruses collected in CDC-recommended media. A variety of transport media have previously been shown to effectively inactivate/kill viral, bacterial, and fungal pathogens while preserving stability of the released DNA and RNA for diagnosis.2-4 These media include ones with a surfactant (eg, guanidine thiocyanate) or molecular-grade ethanol.2-4 One such medium has been extensively analyzed and is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.2-4 Moving to virus-inactivating VTM at collection allows risk mitigation from transportation and handling of bio-specimens for diagnosis and can potentially reduce the need for special packaging and transportation measures for SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 test samples. [...]as the approved molecular NA tests do not inform on strain identification, this goal cannot be met. [...]the current VTM requirements only end up imposing unnecessary risk on transportation and laboratory professionals without any epidemiologic benefits.