No fewer than 239 researchers from 32 countries have renewed calls for the World Health Organisation to revise its recommendation following evidence that the novel coronavirus can linger in the air in smaller particles.
The renewed debates have prompted the scientists to further warn that remnant of the smaller particles still lingering in the air could radically affect how humans conduct their activities, even in confined spaces.
According to the New York Times, if the findings are accurate, the world would need to need to take personal hygiene seriously by strictly wearing face masks indoors, even when they are socially distanced.
“It would also mean those ventilation systems in schools, nursing homes, residences and businesses would need to add new filters to their air conditioning units.
“Another possibility is that ultraviolet light would be deployed to kill tiny, infected particles,” it stated.
It may be recalled that the WHO had maintained in the last four months that the disease spreads primarily from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth when a person with COVID-19 coughs, sneezes or speaks.
New York Times revealed that the 239 scientists in 32 countries have outlined the evidence showing smaller particles can infect people in an open letter to the global body and plan to further publish it in a scientific journal soon.
The team of researchers reaffirmed that, whether carried by large droplets through the air after a sneeze, or by much smaller exhaled droplets that may pervade the length of the room, COVID-19 is borne through the air and can infect people when inhaled.
In response to the new report, the WHO stressed that the evidence provided to prove that the virus is airborne was unconvincing.
The NYT quoted the health agency’s technical head of infection prevention and control, Dr. Benedetta Allegranzi as saying, ‘Especially in the last couple of months, we have been stating several times that we consider airborne transmission as possible but certainly not supported by solid or even clear evidence.’
The discovery has further reopened a debate about whether enough viral particles can survive in the air to infect people who breathe them in hours later.
In March 2020, the United States government researchers claimed that the novel coronavirus was capable of surviving in the air for three hours and on plastic and steel surfaces for up to three days.
Tests also revealed that the virus can survive on copper for four hours, cardboard for an entire day and up to 72 hours on plastic and steel.
In April 2020, Chinese researchers discovered that the virus can linger in the air of crowded places.
Experts in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the pandemic began, analyzed air samples from different parts of two hospitals with results showing that the virus, called SARS-CoV-2, was undetectable everywhere except two areas ‘prone to crowding’.
Researchers behind the study say the findings highlight the importance of ventilation, limiting crowds and proper disinfection.
source:punch