Breathing, singing or talking can spread Covid-19
WASHINGTON: The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has changed its advice about how Covid-19 can spread to include breathing, singing or talking.
Updated guidance on the centre’s website says the coronavirus can commonly spread “through respiratory droplets or small particles, such as those in aerosols,” which are produced even when a person breathes, 9News reported yesterday.
“Airborne viruses, including Covid-19, are among the most contagious and can easily spread,” the site now says.
Previously, the CDC page said that Covid19 was thought to spread mainly between people in close contact, about 1.8m, and “through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks”.
The page, updated on Friday, still says Covid-19 most commonly spreads between people who are in close contact with one another, and now says the virus is known to spread “through respiratory droplets or small particles, such as those in aerosols, produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, sings, talks or breathes”.
These particles can cause infection when “inhaled into the nose, mouth, airways, and lungs,” it says. “This is thought to be the main way the virus spreads.
“There is growing evidence that droplets and airborne particles can remain suspended in the air and be breathed in by others, and travel distances beyond six feet (for example, during choir practice, in restaurants or in fitness classes),” the page now says. “In general, indoor environments without good ventilation increase this risk.”
For months, scientists have noted the likelihood of coronavirus transmission through viral particles in the air and pushed health agencies to acknowledge it.
“Most public health organisations, including the World Health Organisation, do not recognise airborne transmission except for aerosol-generating procedures.
“Hand washing and social distancing are appropriate but in our view, insufficient to provide protection from virus-carrying respiratory microdroplets released into the air by infected people,” they added.