Coronavirus is Airborne
COVID-19 has been considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) for over a year now. Since then, the world has developed many vaccines against it, setting a new standard for vaccine development.
Nonetheless, the science community is far from understanding COVID-19 and the pathogen, SARS-CoV-2. This disease remains very infectious as each new SARS-CoV-2 strain or mutated form tends to be more contagious than the previous one.
What doctors do know for certain is that the coronavirus infection progresses more rapidly during COVID-19’s pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic stages. Even the patient is unaware that they are a carrier and a spreader of the virus at this point.
Since the disease first emerged in China in December 2019, transmission of COVID-19 from an infected person to a healthy person has become a point of contention. During the initial months, the WHO did not even recommend using a face mask to deter the spread of COVID-19, maintaining that only affected individuals should do so.
In July 2020, independent health authorities argued for a reform in WHO recommendations and for COVID-19 to be classified as an airborne disease. The WHO seemed to accept the possibility of the disease spreading through the air, stating that it could not be ruled out. However, the department quickly stated that there was no proof that COVID-19 was airborne.
The WHO maintained in its July 2020 guidance that contact and droplet transmission, as well as infection through fomites, were the primary modes of COVID-19 spread. These modes of transmission continue to be important.
However, in response to an increasing chorus of health specialists and researchers advocating for COVID-19 to be classified as an airborne disease, the WHO updated its scientific brief on April 30. It now recognizes the probability of COVID-19 transmission through the air in an enclosed or non-ventilated environment. Additionally, the virus can spread in poorly ventilated and/or packed indoor environments, where people spend extended periods of time. This is due to the fact that aerosols linger in the air or travel more than one meter.
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