Abstract:
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, which causes Corona Virus
Disease 2019, is responsible for the ongoing pandemic. The virus can be transmitted through
contact with contaminated surfaces. There is no report about hospital and public
environmental surface contamination of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in
Ethiopia.
Objective: To determine the magnitude of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2
on selected environmental surfaces and Corona Virus Disease 2019 prevention and control
practices by the community of Harar city, eastern Ethiopia from April 15 to May 15/2021.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 384 identified potential Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 contact surfaces from the community and hospital.
Observational checklists were used to assess the practice of Corona Virus Disease 2019
prevention and control by the community. Samples of the selected environmental surface were
swabbed using a sterile Dacron. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2
nucleic acid was extracted using DaAn kit (DaAn Gene, China). Amplification and detection
were done using BGI kits on the Quant Studio 7 Flex Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
System. Data were entered into EpiData version 4.6 and analyzed using the STATA software
version 14. The surface contamination level was compared and p<0.05 was considered
statistically significant.
Result: The overall magnitude of the virus detected from the swabbed surface was 12% (95%
CI, 8.7.15.2%). Most of the virus was detected from surfaces in Surgical Ward (83.3%) of the
hospital and pool house surface and material (33.3%) in the community. There were
significant differences in the level of contamination between different hospital sites (p < 0.05).
The majority of the observed site did not practice the Corona Virus Disease 2019 control and
prevention
Conclusion: This study detected a high magnitude of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Coronavirus 2 from hospital and pool house surfaces. The door handle of the hospital and the
white ball surfaces of the pool house were highly contaminated with the virus. Most of the
observed sites did not practice infection prevention strategies. Therefore, awareness creation
on prevention and control of the virus with additional mandatory law enforcement activities
should be implemented to tackle the transmission within the community and hospital
