NEW EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT COVID-19 COULD BE TRANSMITTED THROUGH THE AIR - NCDC, WHO SAY
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has said new evidence suggests that COVID-19 could be transmitted through the air.
NCDC Director-General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, disclosed this on Monday, July 13, during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force, PTF, on COVID-19.
Ihekweazu said that development is attributed to new evidence, which goes beyond the belief that the infection could only be transmitted through droplets that emanate from the nose and the mouth and fall to the ground.
According to the NCDC boss, “Over the past few weeks, increasing evidence has emerged that in addition to droplet infections; we cannot rule out that airborne transmission is also possible as a mode of transmission of COVID-19.
Understanding the modes of transmission of any new virus is very critical for defining response strategies. For COVID-19, from the very beginning, our understanding based on other coronaviruses that spread was primarily through droplets.”
Speaking further, Ihekweazu added that droplets are excretions from the respiratory tracts that can’t stay in the air but fall to the ground after a few minutes.
“However, as we have studied transmission, studied 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 and influenza; that can be suspended in the air and transmit over longer distances,” he added.
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Ihekweazu noted that the World Health Organisation, WHO, has also updated its guidelines following the new mode of transmission.
He hereby urged Nigerians to take precautionary measures as the infection could be transmitted by air.
The World Health Organization on Thursday, July 9 released a new scientific report claiming that coronavirus may pass from one person through the air particularly in crowded indoor spaces.
The report says that "to the best of our understanding," the virus is primarily spread through contact and respiratory droplets, but there are still many unanswered questions around airborne transmission and "more studies are urgently needed."
According to the NCDC, on Monday, July 13, Nigeria has recorded 33153 positive cases of COVID-19, with 13671 patients discharged and 744 deaths recorded.
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