CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad and CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh have released their data on the air-borne nature of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Scientists have worked with hospitals, three in Hyderabad and three in Chandigarh, to find if the virus particles can be found in air samples in the hospital wards. They used an air sampler that can collect the virus particles and then looked for their presence using RT-PCR.
In this study, the virus was found in air samples from Covid-19 wards of hospitals but not from non-Covid-19 wards. This suggests that the demarcation of hospital zones has been an effective strategy. The study also showed the chances of picking up SARS-CoV-2 in the air is directly related to the number of Covid positive cases in the room, their symptomatic status and the duration of exposure. When Covid positive individuals spent longer hours in a room, the virus was found in the air for more than two hours and even farther than two metres from their seating places. But for asymptomatic cases, the virus does not spread farther from them when they are seated in a room without perceived airflow due to a fan or AC.
“Till the vaccines are available, the social vaccine that is wearing a mask is the best prevention,” said Dr Sanjeev Khosla, Director, IMTECH. “All these findings do show that the coronavirus can stay in the air for some time. But they also strengthen the importance of Covid-19 preventive guidelines that we already have in place to curb this pandemic. If we ensure that we follow hygiene protocols such as regular handwashing, using masks effectively, and preventing symptomatic people from public mixing, we can start getting back to normalcy more comfortably. Detecting and isolating the positive cases early on can help prevent the spread among other family members in a home setting too,” comments Dr Rakesh Mishra, Director, CCMB and corresponding author of this study.
The study is available on preprint server MedRxiv and is yet to be peer-reviewed.