Distancing, face masks still the best protection

There is still so much that is not known about how the COVID-19 virus spreads, but one unexpected means can now be added – group singing. A published study in the United States said the “act of singing” likely contributed to 53 of 61 people who attended a March choir rehearsal north of Seattle, Washington, getting sick. Two of them subsequently died of COVID-19. After this report in the Los Angeles Times, another report said four people died from COVID-19 after a choir performance in Amsterdam, Holland.

Still another report said women members of a church in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, died after church services that included singing. A choir seminar in Losenstein, Austria, was attended by 44 participants; all but one later tested positive for COVID-19. Other choir outbreaks were later reported in Germany, England, and South Korea.

At a US web seminar sponsored by multiple music organizations, a University of Maryland bio-aerosol researcher advised choirs and other performing groups not to gather until a vaccine or cure for COVID-19 becomes widely available.

The cases linked to choir singing are in line with the finding that the COVID-19 virus, which measures about 0.1 micron in diameter – about 4 millionths of an inch – can travel in a droplet or aerosol exhaled by a person coughing or sneezing. A person coughing can throw out 300,000 or more aerosols which can easily reach another person within about six feet or two meters.

Heavier droplets tend to fall close to the sneezing or coughing person but tiny particles can remain airborne for sometime, depending on the movement of the air, as in a room with air-conditioning. This is now believed to be the principal way COVID-19 moves from person to person. And choir members are especially vulnerable because they exhale and inhale deeply to sing.

Choir singing has thus been found to pose a special danger to people. For most of us, we can benefit from this finding about the virus travels in the air.

A review of 172 studies in 16 countries published in London last Monday said physical distancing of at least one meter lowers the risk of infection and two meters would be more effective. Face masks and protective eye coverings would also add protective benefits.