COVID-19: Beware of public enclosed places such as restaurants and workplaces as these can become environments for super spreading! While it is important to stay in ventilated and open spaces, public gatherings are a clear no-no. So are mass living spaces which pose high-risk environments for groups of people living together in enclosed spaces.
COVID-19: Huge impact on public spaces post-lockdown
Citing insights from AIIMS Director Dr. Randeep Guleria during Express e-Adda on Monday, the huge impact on public spaces post-lockdown is an area to focus on, IE report indicates.
Notably, there are questions that he has raised which are not different from what Indians are already asking and discussing about between themselves. For instance, when we travel on buses and trains, how do we sit and how many seats do we leave empty to remain safe? Recommending the need for ‘micro-planning’ in public spaces, there is no doubt that closed public spaces are an area of concern during the post-lockdown period, particularly in India.
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COVID-19: Schools not transmission centres!
A silver lining is that schools do not come in the category of being prominent transmission centres as children are not likely to be the source of any household infection, IE has reported. Iceland, for instance, has undertaken a population screening of thousands of people and found that no child under 10 years of age has been detected positive!
Given how most Indian families and parents are extremely concerned about the safety of their school-going children, an interesting pointer is that schools are considered to be relatively safer, particularly for those children who are less than 10 years old.
In fact, the IE report cited an Australian study in medRxviv, which shared the same finding mentioned above that children are unlikely to be a source of any household infection, as compared to the trend during bird flu when about 54 per cent of transmission clusters had identified children and the main source of the infection.
These facts are based on some common findings pertaining to 14 studies that explore transmission patterns spanning nine countries. These pointers assume relevance as the Centre and states look to implement exit strategies ahead of May 17, when the third phase of the lockdown has been scheduled to end.
A study in ‘The Lancet’ indicates that COVID-19 transmission is largely triggered by close contact over a prolonged period and in close proximity.
