This previous Thursday, the World Health Organization has just published its new guidelines. In this version, they have grimly changed their point of view regarding some things. The World Health Organization has admitted that the new coronavirus could be transmitted via air particles in closed spaces, such as restaurants or gyms.
In the past, the World Health Organization has admitted that the virus could tend to become airborne if located in certain environments, such as during aerosol-generating medical operations. Their new advice keeps in mind the fact that, according to some research, the new coronavirus could spread through airborne particles in indoor, closed spaces, especially if they are crowded. Some of the areas that the World Health Organization have declared as possible virus-spreading areas are restaurants, gyms, fitness classes and even choir practice. That is impressively specific of the World Health Organization.
During events such as this, the short-range of the aerosol transmission, especially in some indoor locations, such as poorly ventilated, crowded places, over a long period of time, could lead to infections. In its guidance, the World Health Organization explained that early evidence seems to indicate that the possibility of airborne transmission could explain some isolated cases of infection.
In the guidance, the World Health Organization also chose to mention that looking into these clusters seems to indicate that fomite and droplet transmission could explain inter-human transmission in a lot of clusters. However, a lot more research needs to be performed before we can be sure of these findings. For now, the World Health Organization has stated that they still consider respiratory droplets to be the primary mode of transmission.
Airborne transmission could occur in two ways. It occurs if droplets carrying the virus evaporate, thus leading to aerosols, or if normal breathing leads to the creation of aerosols. Both versions are quite scary.