Dear Editor,

SARS‐CoV‐2 is mostly transmitted through respiratory droplets and contact routes, but the WHO also states that “airborne transmission may be possible in specific circumstances and settings in which procedures or support treatments that generate aerosols are performed” (WHO, 2020).

There are a few studies being specifically performed to investigate the susceptibility of SARS‐CoV‐2 to disinfectants in which substances with proven efficacy against other coronaviruses have been evaluated (Kampf, Todt, Pfaender, & Steinmann, 2020). A recent review reports that application of 0.5% hydrogen peroxide for 1 min can be used as a surface disinfectant due to its virucidal activity against human coronavirus (Kampf et al., 2020). The applicability of hydrogen peroxide as disinfectant has been widely explored in the literature, but the concentrations used are much higher than that reported (Kampf et al., 2020). High concentrations of hydrogen peroxide can counter the decrease in efficacy when the compound is degraded in water and oxygen after reacting with catalase (Rutala, Gergen, & Weber, 2008). In addition to the concentration of the hydrogen peroxide, another crucial factor is the need for high temperatures (Rutala et al., 2008).

In order to assess the literature on the virucidal effect of hydrogen peroxide for surface disinfection, we have performed an electronic search on PubMed, registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) according to protocol number CRD42020190033, by using the following terms: “hydrogen peroxide”, “virucidal”, “disinfection”, “cleanse”, “decontaminate”, “sanitize”, “antiseptic”, “coronavirus”, “covid‐19”, “sarscov 2”, “virus”, “HPV” and “MERS”. A total of 28 articles were found, and we have excluded studies not evaluating surface cleaning or those mixing other compounds with hydrogen peroxide. Reviews, letters to the editor, personal opinions, textbook chapters, case reports and congress abstracts were also excluded.