I don’t know, someone chime in. Under the right conditions could viruses “replicate”? Like in a sealed off small Cruise ship cabin with HVAC turned off for many days?
No, viruses can’t reproduce on their own, which is one of the reasons they don’t meet the criteria to be considered “alive.” They hijack and reprogram the replication machinery of the cells they infect to cause the cell to churn out more copies of the virus. No host cells, no viral replication.