slow the transmission of Covid-19, specifically.
“Changing the room air is a widely used measure for infection prevention and control,” says Stephen Morse, an infectious disease researcher and professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “It replaces any virus-contaminated air with clean air.”
Opening windows is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to encourage this type of air turnover, he says.
“I am not concerned about a window air conditioner or an air conditioner in a residential setting being a source of COVID spread.
I would apply the same guidance that we give to the large buildings to individuals that a really good way to decrease any potential risk of COVID is just to open your window, open your door, have additional airflow running through your apartment or through your home.
And, broadly, letting the outdoors in is one, it has turned out to be, one of the more important things for limiting the risk of COVID in buildings,” says Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner for the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Experts have suggested that a lack of airflow could play a role in the spread of the virus.
“If you’re indoors there is also less air circulation, so it’s more likely that COVID-19 can spread through respiratory droplets when people talk, cough or sneeze,” said Heather Voss, a program director of epidemiology and infection prevention at Northwestern Medicine.
Earlier this month, the World Health Organization published new guidance, saying it can’t rule out the possibility that the coronavirus can be transmitted through air particles in closed spaces indoors, including in gyms and restaurants.
The new guidance recognizes some new research that suggests the virus may be able to spread through particles in the air in “indoor crowded spaces.”
“In these events, short-range aerosol transmission, particularly in specific indoor locations, such as crowded and inadequately ventilated spaces over a prolonged period of time with infected persons cannot be ruled out,” the United Nations health agency’s new guidance says.