Estimation of Inactivation time for the SARS-CoV-2 virus from the UV biometer in South Korea

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a result of the infection by “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and has caused various social and economic effects over the globe. As the SARS-CoV-2 is effectively inactivated by the exposure to the UV-B radiation (shorter than 315 nm), the exposure time for inactivation of the SARS-CoV-2 was estimated using the broadband UV observation instrument over 11 observation sites in South Korea. For the limitation of the UV biometer, which has limited spectral information, the coefficient for conversion from the erythemal UV (EUV) to the radiation for virus inactivation was adopted before estimating the inactivation time. The inactivation time of SARS-CoV-2 is significantly dependent on seasonal and diurnal variations due to the temporal variations of surface incident UV irradiance. The inactivation times in summer and winter were around 10 and 50 min, respectively. The inactivation time was unidentified during winter afternoons due to the weak spectral UV solar radiation in winter. As the estimation of inactivation time using broadband observation includes the uncertainty due to the conversion coefficient and the error due to the solar irradiance, the sensitivity analysis of the inactivation time estimation was also conducted by changing the UV irradiance.