Isolation and identification of human coronavirus 229E from frequently touched environmental surfaces of a university classroom that is cleaned daily

Highlights

• Human coronavirus 229E was isolated from hard surfaces of a daily cleaned university classroom.

• Dried human coronavirus 229E can remain viable on environmental surfaces for at least 7 days.

• Sequence analyses indicate that a novel human coronavirus 229E strain was isolated.

Frequently touched surfaces of a university classroom that is cleaned daily contained viable human coronavirus 229E (CoV-229E). Tests of a CoV-229E laboratory strain under conditions that simulated the ambient light, temperature, and relative humidity conditions of the classroom revealed that some of the virus remained viable on various surfaces for 7 days, suggesting CoV-229E is relatively stable in the environment. Our findings reinforce the notion that contact transmission may be possible for this virus.