Airborne transmission of COVID-19 possible – PTF

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Monday revealed that airborne transmission of COVID-19 is possible, even as new evidence has shown.


It, therefore, urged citizens to absolutely wear a face mask and adhere to other non-pharmaceutical protocols like avoiding mass gatherings, practicing social distancing and maintaining hand hygiene by washing of hands.

 

Speaking during the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing in Abuja, the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said: “Over the past few weeks, increasing evidence has emerged that in addition to droplet infection we cannot rule out that airborne transmission is also possible as a mode of transmission of covid-19.

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“The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its guidelines on this saying exactly the same thing – that we cannot rule out airborne transmission. Therefore, we have to act in a precautionary way assuming that this is also possible given the new evidence that is emerging.

 

“Understanding the mode of transmission of any new virus is very critical for defining response strategies. For Covid-19, from the very beginning, our understanding based on all the coronavirus that was spread, was primarily through droplets and excretions from the respiratory tract that can’t stay on in air, and they ultimately fall to the ground after a few minutes.

 

“However, as we have studied transmissions and clusters of these infections, we saw increasing evidence from clusters of infections where droplet transmission did not seem to be enough to explain the clusters that we are seeing.

 

“Diseases that are commonly understood to be spread by what we call airborne infection are things like measles, influenza, etc., that can be suspended in the air and transmitted over longer distances.

 

“The new research does not change our guidelines, but only strengthens them as they stand.”


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