COVID-19. Study indicates infection by air in closed and poorly ventilated environment – Observer



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In January, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, an infected and asymptomatic passenger infected a third of his bus without air, during a trip of less than an hour, an indication that the coronavirus is in the air.

The thesis of the transmission of the virus through the air that each one exhales and inhales, instead of the large droplets expelled when sneezing and coughing, was initially neglected by health authorities in the world, before a radical change this summer under pressure from many specialists in respiratory viruses and a host of studies on the presence of viral particles in microdroplets in the air exhaled by mere speech.

The new coronavirus in the air can infect other cells

In an article published Tuesday by the American medical journal Jama Internal Medicine, experts from the Chinese Centers for Disease Control describe questioning and examining passengers who were transported on two buses to a Buddhist event in Ningbo on January 19. a 50 minute trip (with return in the same vehicles). Nobody wore a mask.

A 60-year-old person, without symptoms, was probably the initial case, having had previous contacts with people from Wuhan, where the epidemic began. She was traveling sitting on the right side, in the middle of vehicle 2, between two passengers. In total, 23 other passengers in this car were contaminated, among 68 people.

On the contrary, no infections were registered in the identical car number 1.

The cycle of infections was much wider than the queues around the 60-year-old man, with infected people in the front and back of the bus: if the virus were transmitted only in large droplets, the circle would have been smallerbecause they generally fall within a perimeter of one to two meters.

On the other hand, the The initial patient had no symptoms at the time of the trip, so he was not coughing..

HE The car’s air conditioning system recirculated the air inside the vehicle. and did not renew it, which likely contributed to the spread of the virus, the research authors concluded.

This survey suggests that, in closed environments where air recirculates, SARS-CoV-2 is a highly communicable disease, ”they wrote.

The detailed study, which includes a plan of the vehicle with the position of each infected person, joins others in the same direction, specifically the case of multiple contamination between tables in a restaurant in Guangzhou, probably powered by a ventilation system that does not renew indoor air.

After all, the new coronavirus is transmitted through the air? 6 answers to understanding the latest WHO announcement

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