supply of sterilizers, disinfectant

supply of sterilizers, disinfectant devices, and air purifiers that can facilitate rapid turnaround of sterilized or disinfected medical equipment and that help reduce the risk of viral exposure for patients and health care providers to SARS-CoV-2. FDA believes that certain sterilizers, disinfectant devices, and air purifiers falling within the scope of this guidance (see Section III) may help reduce this risk of viral exposure based on our current understanding of these devices and SARS-CoV-2.Coronaviruses are RNA viruses enveloped in a lipid bilayer.9,10 SARS-CoV-2 is a type of coronavirus. As depicted in Figure 1, lipid viruses are the least resistant microorganisms on the scale of descending order of resistance to germicidal chemicals.11 Because sterilization processes render devices free from viable microorganisms including bacterial spores, and because disinfection kills most recognized pathogenic microorganisms, it can generally be inferred that sterilization and disinfection should minimize the viability of SARS-CoV-2 (as one of the least resistant microorganisms) on surfaces and in the air in confined spaces. Moreover, air purifiers can be designed to filter out virus-sized particles.