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Merge 104.8 | 08 July 2020
The World Health Organization (WHO) has come forward in acknowledgement of developing evidence on the risk of airborne transmission of COVID-19.
As The Guardian reports: “A senior WHO official said there was “evidence emerging” of airborne transmission of the coronavirus, but that it was not definitive.”
The acknowledgement comes after an open letter published Monday [July 6] in the Clinical Infectious Diseases Journal saw 239 scientists from 32 different countries present research findings showing that smaller COVID-19 virus particles can linger in the air and transmit infection via aerosol route.
In the letter, the bloc of scientists put pressure on the WHO to update its guidance literature and advice on COVID-19 transmission to reflect the new evidence.
As per The Guardian, Benedetta Allegranzi, Technical Lead for Infection Prevention and Control at the WHO, said at press conference in Geneva on Tuesday [July 7]: “…The possibility of airborne transmission in public settings — especially in very specific conditions, crowded, closed, poorly ventilated settings that have been described, cannot be ruled out.
“However, the evidence needs to be gathered and interpreted, and we continue to support this.”
The WHO had earlier advised that the COVID-19 virus spreads mainly via small droplets expelled from the mouth and nose of a person infected with the virus, with those droplets rapidly falling to the ground afterward.
Source: The Guardian
