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Indoor, high-occupancy, and poorly ventilated spaces present a higher risk of Covid-19 transmission, the state’s health watchdog warned.
This is particularly the case where “yelling and singing” and prolonged contact occur, or when face covers are not used enough, says the Health Information and Quality Authority.
To reduce risk, specific public health measures are needed in settings where “super-spread” events are likely to occur, it warns.
Hiqa also found that most virus clusters occur in household settings, so household members are at high risk of becoming infected if there is a case of Covid-19.
“International evidence highlights that the main factors contributing to the spread of Covid-19 are closed environments, crowds, and prolonged contact with others,” according to Dr. Máirín Ryan, director of health technology assessment and director deputy executive. “A lot can be done to mitigate risk in these environments, such as ensuring good ventilation and that people follow public health advice to wear face covers, maintain physical distance and wash hands frequently.”
In its advice to the National Public Health Emergency Team, the watchdog says there is “consistent evidence” that clusters occur more frequently in domestic settings and that there is a higher rate of progressive transmission in homes, compared to other environments.
Other settings where large numbers of clusters have been consistently observed include nursing homes, hospitals, meat and food processing plants, large shared accommodations, sports activities, bars, nightclubs and restaurants, gyms, offices, shopping malls, cruise ships , weddings, shopping centers. , prisons, mines and religious environments.
Overlapping
He says that many of these environments have been associated with “super spread events,” where the infection is transmitted to large numbers of people.
Activities involving “eating, drinking, exercising, singing or yelling, and prolonged face-to-face conversation, especially in close quarters with many people” were associated with an increased risk of transmission in studies.
And although the risks are substantially less outdoors, clusters have been observed in outdoor settings, particularly when there are large gatherings, limited social distance, dense congregation, and mixing between groups.
Other factors that increase risk in the workplace include working despite symptoms; higher proportions of people from lower socioeconomic groups, ethnic minorities, and immigrant groups; lack of personal protective equipment or hand washing facilities; and exposure to tools.
Reports say that although schools can be considered as high-risk settings, this is not reflected in the Irish data, with relatively few groups (2 percent of the total).
As time goes on, a different picture may emerge of where clusters occur, Hiqa says, particularly given the measures taken to provide protection in high-risk environments.
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