Dry air and air-conditioned rooms can help spread the coronavirus, according to an Indo-German research team that looked at the role of relative humidity in transmitting infections.
For office workers and students worldwide, the findings are important as they return to their desktops after months of lockdown.
“The role of humidity appears to be extremely important for the airborne distribution of COVID-19 in indoor environments,” the researchers reported. on the website of the German Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS).
The scientists, who studied 10 international studies on swine flu and other infectious diseases such as the Middle East’s respiratory syndrome, found that moisture affects a virus in three ways: droplet size, how droplets float and how droplets fall on surfaces land.
In humid rooms, virus droplets become heavier and fall faster in higher humidity, “providing less opportunity for other people to breathe infected viral droplets,” the team wrote, according to DW, a German news website.
Dry air causes the droplets to shrink and hang, becoming what scientists describe as an ‘optimal route’ for transmission.
Low humidity also dries mucous membranes in the nose, making it an easier way for the coronavirus, she wrote.
Chambers should have a relative humidity of 40% to 60% – open the windows, the researchers carry – to spread a virus and governments should include the recommendation in all public health guidelines, the team found.
In addition to increasing relative humidity and wearing face masks, scientists are urging businesses and schools not to pack their rooms with people.
.
