The World Health Organization is looking at possible “airborne precautions” for medical workers after a new study showed that the virus can survive in the air.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
During a virtual news conference on Monday, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases unit, told reporters that while the virus is usually transmitted through droplets, or bits of saliva, from sneezing or coughing, it could linger in the air for quite some time. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
” When you do an aerosol procedure in medical facilities, you have the possibility of aerosolizing these particles, which means they can stay in the air a little bit longer,” Kerkhove said.” It’s very important that healthcare facilities and their workers should take additional precautions when they’re working on patients and doing those procedures.”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Though World health officials say the respiratory virus is widely transmitted through person to person contact, new studies show” The coronavirus can go airborne and stay in the air depending on factors like heat and humidity,” WHO said.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Kerkhove stated that health officials are aware of studies being conducted in several countries to determine the different environmental conditions that the virus can live in.
” Scientists are specifically studying how humidity, temperature, and ultraviolet lighting can affect the disease, as well as how long it lives on different surfaces, including steel,” Kerkhive added.
Health officials are recommending that medical professionals wear the N95 masks, due to their ability to filter out 95% of all liquid and airborne particles.
” We’re making sure healthcare professionals are using the standard droplet precautions with the exception that they’re doing an aerosol procedure,” Kerkhove said.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Robert Redfield, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, informed Congress on Monday that the agency was aggressively studying how long the virus can survive, particularly on surfaces.
” On copper and steel, it’s about two hours,” Redfield said at a Congress hearing. “But I’ll say on other surfaces like cardboard or plastic, it’s much longer.”
Redfield believes surface infections caused the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, rather than airborne infections.
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