Abstract
Hand washing and maintaining social distance are the main measures recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to avoid contracting COVID-19. Unfortunately, these measured do not prevent infection by inhalation of small droplets exhaled by an infected person that can travel distance of meters or tens of meters in the air and carry their viral content. Science explains the mechanisms of such transport and there is evidence that this is a significant route of infection in indoor environments. Despite this, no countries or authorities consider airborne spread of COVID-19 in their regulations to prevent infections transmission indoors. It is therefore extremely important, that the national authorities acknowledge the reality that the virus spreads through air, and recommend that adequate control measures be implemented to prevent further spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, in particularly removal of the virus-laden droplets from indoor air by ventilation.
Keywords
Airborne transmissionCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)Face masksTransmission (telecommunications)2019-20 coronavirus outbreakEnvironmental healthSocial distanceBusinessAir transportVentilation (architecture)PandemicEnvironmental scienceAeronauticsMedicineGeographyComputer scienceVirologyMeteorologyEngineeringTelecommunicationsInfectious disease (medical specialty)
MeSH Terms
Air PollutionIndoorBetacoronavirusCOVID-19Coronavirus InfectionsHumansPandemicsPneumoniaViralSARS-CoV-2Ventilation
Affiliated Institutions
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Publication Info
- Year
- 2020
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 139
- Pages
- 105730-105730
- Citations
- 1768
- Access
- Closed
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Cite This
Lídia Morawska,
Junji Cao
(2020).
Airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2: The world should face the reality.
Environment International
, 139
, 105730-105730.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.105730
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.envint.2020.105730
- PMID
- 32294574
- PMCID
- PMC7151430