The greatest risk for spreading the virus comes when people gather indoors with limited airflow
Governor JB Pritzker form a Facebook post today:
Governor JB Pritzker It's a new year, so let's have new motivation to protect ourselves and others.
The greatest risk for spreading the virus comes when people gather indoors with limited airflow. Read the study here: https://www.medrxiv.org/con.../10.1101/2020.04.16.20067728v1
Evidence for probable aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a poorly ventilated restaurant
Yuguo Li, Hua Qian, Jian Hang, Xuguang Chen, Ling Hong, Peng Liang, Jiansen Li, Shenglan Xiao, Jianjian Wei, Li Liu, Min Kang
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.16.20067728
This article is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed [what does this mean?]. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.16.20067728v1.full.pdf
Abstract
Background The role of aerosols in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 remains debated. We analysed an outbreak involving three non-associated families in Restaurant X in Guangzhou, China, and assessed the possibility of aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and characterize the associated environmental conditions.
Methods We collected epidemiological data, obtained a video record and a patron seating-arrangement from the restaurant, and measured the dispersion of a warm tracer gas as a surrogate for exhaled droplets from the suspected index patient. Computer simulations were performed to simulate the spread of fine exhaled droplets. We compared the in-room location of subsequently infected cases and spread of the simulated virus-laden aerosol tracer. The ventilation rate was measured using the tracer decay method.
Results
Three families (A, B, C), 10 members of which were subsequently found to have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 at this time, or previously, ate lunch at Restaurant X on Chinese New Year’s Eve (January 24, 2020) at three neighboring tables. Subsequently, three members of family B and two members of family C became infected with SARS-CoV-2, whereas none of the waiters or 68 patrons at the remaining 15 tables became infected. During this occasion, the ventilation rate was 0.75–1.04 L/s per person. No close contact or fomite contact was observed, aside from back-to-back sitting by some patrons. Our results show that the infection distribution is consistent with a spread pattern representative of exhaled virus-laden aerosols.
Conclusions
Aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 due to poor ventilation may explain the community spread of COVID-19.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Funding Statement
The work was supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong’s General Research Fund (17202719), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0702800), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41875015), and the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (2019B111103001).
Author Declarations
All relevant ethical guidelines have been followed; any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained and details of the IRB/oversight body are included in the manuscript.
Yes
All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived.
Yes
I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).
Yes
I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable.
Yes
Paper in collection COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 preprints from medRxiv and bioRxiv
