Table 3.

Summary of the commonly used air samplers for corona viruses sampling.

Sampler	Target virus	Sampling time	Sampling flow rate (sampling volume)	Limitations	References
Filter: MD-8 airscan sampler	MERS-CoV	20 min	50L/min (1000 L)	→Dehydration of viruses during sampling →Possibility of inactivation of some fraction of the collected viruses during the extraction process of the filters →May require high volume sample pumps	(Kim et al., 2016)
Filter: MD-8 airscan sampling device (Sartorius) and sterile gelatin filters	MERS-CoV	20 min	50 L/min (1000 L)		(Azhar et al., 2014)
Filter: High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters installed in the pipeline connecting sampler and vacuum pump	SARS coronaviruses	4 h	4 L/min (960 L)		(Agranovski et al., 2004)
Filter: PTFE membrane filter with a pore size of 0.3 μm in a closed-face, 3-piece disposable plastic cassette attached to a personal sample pump	SARS coronaviruses	10.5 – 13 h	2 L/min (1260–1560 L)		(Booth et al., 2005)
Filter: MD-8 airscan sampler	SARS-CoV-2	15 min	100 L/min (1500 L)		(Ong et al., 2020a)
Filter: Sterilized gelatin filters with pore size 3 μm placed in styrene filter cassette	SARS-CoV-2	1 h	5 L/min (300 L)	→Desiccation of viruses may occur in case of sampling at low relative humidity →Dissolution of gelatin filters may occur in case of sampling at high relative humidity and high sampling volume	(Liu et al., 2020)
Impinger: attached to a personal sample pump with average flow	SARS-CoV-2	1 h	1 L/min (60 L)	→The limited flow rate capacity →Antifoam is required to overcome production of foam in the culture medium	(Faridi et al., 2020)
Impactor: High-resolution slit-sampler system	SARS coronaviruses	18 min	30 L/min (540 L)	→Limit the smallest cut-off size to 0.2–0.3 μm	(Booth et al., 2005)
Cyclone: SASS 2300 wetted wall cyclone sampler	SARS-CoV-2	30 min	300min (9000 L)	→Degradation of viral RNA may occur during the collection	(Borges et al., 2021; Guo et al., 2020)
Cyclone Bioaerosol Sampler	SARS-CoV-2	4 h	3.5 L/min (840 L)		(Chia et al., 2020)
Cyclone and filter: Cyclone sampler and 37-mm filter cassettes and 0.3-μm polytetrafluoroethylene filters	SARS-CoV-2	4 h	100 L/min (400 L)		(Ong et al., 2020a)