How does COVID-19 spread ?
The three main ways COVID-19 infection spreads, according to major health institutions, are:
- Contact transmission: infection is spread through direct contact with an infectious person or with a contaminated surface.
- Droplet transmission: Through exposure to virus-containing respiratory droplets exhaled by an infectious person. Transmission is most likely to occur when someone is close to the infectious person, generally within 1 meter.
- Airborne transmission: Through particles that can remain suspended in the air over long distances and several hours.
Aerosols vs droplets: What’s the Difference?
There is growing evidence that the virus is conveyed in the air by these small particles, smaller than 5µm, called aerosols.
When someone with COVID-19 coughs, they send a spray of mucus and saliva droplets from their mouths. These tiny drops are defined Aerosols or droplets, according to their size. Aerosols are liquid or solid particles suspended in air. (Tellier 2009; Judson 2019) Droplets, measuring between 5µm and 10 µm in diameter, contain particles of the virus and timely, drop on surfaces.
Many have believed that droplets predominate over aerosols in terms of infection transmission, however, since the recent past, evidence has been provided to speculated that aerosols play a major role in transmitting the disease.
How to protect from COVID-19 airborne transmission?
Recent serious studies insist that engineering controls on airborne transmission is definitely part of an overall strategy to limit infection risk indoors.
Besides social distancing, hand washing, and other preventive measures, the proper ventilation should be recognized as a means to reduce airborne transmission of COVID-19.
Among experts recommendations on ventilation, we find:
- To increase the existing ventilation rates and enhance ventilation effectiveness.
- To eliminate any air-recirculation within the ventilation system.
- To supplement existing ventilation with portable air cleaners where there are areas of known air stagnation.
- To avoid over-crowding in closed indoor spaces: school classrooms, restaurants, public transport, cinemas, etc.
Effective air purification removes particles and airborne viruses, granting protection against COVID-19.
An official laboratory report proves that ATA Medical technology is 99.9946{01e3c5e93231d16e008ef94f2b1d6fd0127ff363a7cc717001d1444d838f865e} efficient eliminating coronavirus.
ATA Medical has appointed the independent French laboratory Virnext to set up an experimental procedure to assess the effectiveness of the Room Dopair®, Dopair® filtration system in decontaminating a confined space contaminated with viruses of the same category of coronaviridae.
The test was carried out with 2 virus categories:
- Enveloped, the category of coronaviridae
- Non-enveloped, such as adenovirus.
The system was tested on a confined space of 2.5 m3 where airborne viruses had been spread. Results obtained in 5 minutes were efficiency superior to 99.9929{01e3c5e93231d16e008ef94f2b1d6fd0127ff363a7cc717001d1444d838f865e} and 99.905 {01e3c5e93231d16e008ef94f2b1d6fd0127ff363a7cc717001d1444d838f865e} respectively for the categories of viruses with lipid membranes such as coronaviridae, and without membranes such as Adenovirus type 5, respectively.
The availability of a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19 is well-recognized as an additional tool to contribute to the control of the pandemic, but until a large percentage of the world population receives vaccination, and we succeed to reduce the reproductive number to less than 1.0 and stop the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, enhanced ventilation remains a key element in limiting the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
ATA Medical: More than 30 years of experience in hygienic air treatment in hospitals, laboratories, healthcare centers and risk areas.
Aerosolized coronavirus can remain in the air for up to three hours.
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