New Delhi: In a vacant toilet in China, researchers found traces of SARS-CoV-2 which was directly above the home of five people who tested positive for Covid-19. Researchers believe that the virus travelled through the sewage pipes. Much like the SARS outbreak in 2003, traces of the novel coronavirus were found in the toilet of a vacant home which was right above the home of 5 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Guangzhou, China suggesting that the airborne virus could have travelled through the sewage pipelines.

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In a study published in the journal Environment International, SARS-CoV-2 was detected in February on the sink, faucet, and shower handle by the researchers of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The researchers confirmed that coronavirus particles were present in washrooms in apartments located 10 or 12 floors above Covid-19 cases and that each of these floors had at least two cases.

“The possibility of aerosol diffusion through sewage pipe after flushing the toilet at the 15-floor restroom was further confirmed by an onsite tracer simulation experiment showing aerosols were found in the restroom of apartments at 25-floor (two cases confirmed on Feb 1) and 27-floor (two cases confirmed on Feb 6 and 13),” said the study.

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SARS-CoV-2 particles present in the feces of the patient could have travelled to different washrooms through the plumbing.

This case is similar to the spread of the SARS in Hong Kong’s Amoy Garden private housing estate when 329 residents were infected with SARS after the virus spread through their faulty sewage pipelines.

Earlier researchers have also found that toilet flushes can generate aerosols from excreta, these aerosols can stay suspended in air and can travel over the distance of one meter. Hence, they can cause aerosol transmission.