[ad_1]
The office, restaurant and bus have become sites of multiple coronavirus infections. All these cases have been investigated by specialists and have provided valuable advice on how to prevent them from happening again, writes the Spanish “El País”.
People celebrating Chinese New Year in a restaurant. In a 19-story building, 100 workers are infected. A group of God-fearing Buddhists who travel by bus to religious rites. These are massive cases of COVID-19 infection that have been investigated by specialists. What happened? What were the risk factors? Most importantly, what can you learn from this?
Office
In a call center located in South Korea, 4 factors were activated: short distance, long-term contact, large number of people, closed space.
A local authority study found that nearly all of the people who were infected in this 19-story building worked in the same call center. Not only that, most of the infected worked in the same room. Despite 1,000 people working in the building constantly moving from floor to floor and in contact with each other, infections were more prevalent in call center facilities. The researchers concluded that long-term contact between employees became a deciding factor.
1. Employees sat in grouped workplaces of 13 people each;
2. In some groups, 9 out of 13 workers were infected;
3. A total of 137 people divided into groups worked in the closed room;
4. Infected 79 out of 137. Prolonged contact in the same room became a deciding factor;
5. The percentage of infections among people who work on the same floor but in other places is much lower;
6. Only 3 infections were recorded in the rest of the building.
According to scientists and doctors, the risk of mass infection could have been significantly reduced if workers had not concentrated in a large group in one room. They could work shifts or remotely, use physical means of protection (such as masks) in a more disciplined way, and not share office equipment. It is also recommended not to hold large meetings and limit the number of people in the rest areas, which should also be better ventilated.
What to do?
1. Install a natural ventilation system;
2. Avoid employee gatherings in gatherings and recreation areas;
3. Leave the employees at the beginning of the zigzag, keeping a distance of 2 meters;
4. Avoid physical contact between employees, do not share non-disinfected office supplies.
restaurant
A New Year’s party in Guangzhou, China, is the best example of how to reduce risk indoors. Chinese doctors have identified the most important factors such as the ventilation system, the duration of contact, and social distance.
1. There were 90 visitors and 8 employees in the unnaturally ventilated room;
2. One of the visitors had dinner with the family. He developed symptoms of COVID-19 that same night;
3. Coronavirus was subsequently diagnosed in 9 more visitors. Everyone sat more than 1 meter from the first visitor. No one was infected anymore;
4. The duration of the contact is very important. People sitting at neighboring tables experienced short-term intimacy with the virus carrier;
5. According to the researchers, the greatest damage was caused by the air conditioning system, which repeatedly recirculated the virus-infected air stream.
Surveillance camera records show that those infected did not have contact with the virus carrier anywhere else, but simply sat at adjacent tables. Although there was no direct contact, the infection was transmitted due to an inadequate ventilation system and too short a distance: the ventilation openings leading to the outside of the restaurant were closed.
What to do?
1. Open the windows, even if it is too hot or too cold for visitors;
2. Turn off the music so that people speaking do not have to raise their voices;
3. Avoid recirculation of air flows; do not use closed air conditioning systems;
4. Always use air filters;
5. Limit the number of visitors;
6. Increase the distances between visitors;
7. Whenever possible, have parties outside.
Bus
Chinese and American experts investigated the advance of COVID-19 during Buddhist religious rites. The believers who participated in them arrived in two buses, where they spent about 100 minutes. The symptomatic woman was traveling in one of the buses where air was circulating through the air conditioning system. 23 people were infected. As in the case of the restaurant, the infection spread through the air, and people became infected due to inadequate ventilation and the long time they spent together.
1. The buses were full. The passenger queues were separated by only 75 cm of space;
2. 23 people were infected on the bus in which the carrier was traveling. On the second bus, none;
3. The decisive factor is the recirculation of air in the conditioning system. The spread of the infection did not depend on the distance between the main carrier and the other infected passengers.
In Japan and other countries, various studies have found that public transportation does not become a hotbed for a coronavirus outbreak if passengers follow hygiene and safety rules. Especially if you wear masks that prevent the infection from entering the air, as it happened on a Buddhist bus. It is also proposed that additional protection be provided for public transport drivers, that buses and other vehicles are better ventilated, and that the frequency of trips be increased to avoid large passenger collisions.
The specialists who analyzed the 3 examples ranked the effective measures in order of efficiency (from most useful to least effective):
1. Physical distance: teleworking, 2 meters of distance between workplaces, reduction of the number of employees in the office;
2. Control of premises: physical barriers between employees;
3. Proper administration: assign functions to employees so that they have as little contact as possible;
4. Protection measures: mandatory use of masks.
[ad_2]
