Disinfecting surfaces to prevent COVID often all for show, US CDC advises
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Virginia Langmaid, CNN
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(CNN) The risk of surface transmission of COVID-19 is low, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. Far more important is airborne transmission and people who obsessively disinfect surfaces may be doing more harm than good.. CDC determined that the risk of surface transmission is low, and secondary to the primary routes of virus transmission through direct contact droplets and aerosols, Vincent Hill, Chief of the Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch, said on a CDC-sponsored telephone briefing.
Hill said the risk of transmission from touching a surface, while small, is elevated indoors. Outdoors, the sun and other factors can destroy viruses, Hill said.
Household cleaners pose a danger
People may be using household cleaning products in order to protect themselves from COVID-19, but misuse can have dangerous consequences, Mr Hill added.
Frequent cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces may have minimal impact on viral transmission and contribute to hygiene theatre, he added.
Emotional reunions as trans-Tasman bubble opens Putting on a show to clean and disinfect may be used to give people a sense of security that they are being protected from the virus, but this may be a false sense of security, if other prevention measures like wearing masks, physical distancing, and hand hygiene are not being consistently performed, Mr Hill said.
Covid virus does survive on some surfaces for days to weeks
By IANS |
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Photo for representation. Image Source: IANS News
New Delhi, April 20 : As a multi-research team from the UK, the US and Canada warned in a Lancet study last week that SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, is predominantly transmitted through the air, Indian experts on Tuesday said that such understanding already exists and while further research is required to support this claim, people need to be wary of both air and surface transmissions.
The researchers in the Lancet study found little to no evidence that the virus spreads easily via large droplets, which fall quickly through the air and contaminate surfaces.
Carl-Olof Zimmerman/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images
Latest coronavirus news as of 5pm on 20 April
Sweden adds another layer of restrictions to the AstraZeneca jab in younger people
Sweden has said people under 65 who have had an initial dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine should get a different jab for their second dose, due to the small chance of blood clots. France also has this rule, although there the upper age limit is 55.
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Many other countries have restricted use of this vaccine to people over a certain age, as a rare syndrome of blood clots coupled with low levels of platelets – particles in the blood that stick together to form clots – has mainly been seen in younger people. The syndrome is called vaccine–induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia or VITT. Most other countries, however, say those who have had one dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine should also get the second, due to the unknown effectiveness and safety of mixing vaccine type