“Follow the evidence wherever it leads, and question everything.” (Neil deGrasse Tyson)
Western Australia (Rudi Petrig, Mark McGowan)
No community spread for over 5 months
Strict border controls
Secured hotel quarantine for 14 days
catching a few positive cases every week, but not getting into the community
Never had strict broad lockdowns, although early on we did have pubs, clubs, massage parlours, etc closed and many people working from home.
Have and still are using social distancing in shops, but no masks
US
CDC
Friday to Monday
To make it clear that the virus is airborne
Once said the virus is only spread by coughs and sneezes, less than six feet
Infection, breathing, infected particles can travel further than six feet
Linger in the air
On Monday
Removed information from its website
Information posted in error.
WHO
Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: implications for infection prevention precautions
Respiratory droplets bigger than 5 – 10 μm
Smaller than 5μm, droplet nuclei or aerosols
Respiratory droplet transmission, within 1 metre
of an infected person who has respiratory symptoms
Aerosol-generating procedures
To date, transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by this type of aerosol route has not been demonstrated
Talking about cluster evidence
However, the detailed investigations of these clusters suggest that droplet and fomite transmission could also explain human-to-human transmission within these clusters.
Counter argument
Airborne transmission of covid-19
Since the 2003 SARS outbreak, research in aerobiology, physics, and computational fluid dynamics has advanced our understanding of aerosol generation and the carriage and fate of respiratory particles
It Is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) (Clinical Infectious Diseases)
239 scientists signed an open letter appealing to the medical community and relevant national and international bodies to recognise the potential for airborne spread of covid-19
India
Cases, 5, 562, 662
Deaths 88, 935
Health system overwhelmed
Chaos in places
Shortage of medical staff and equipment
Government hospitals at capacity
Delhi
Orders 33 private hospitals to reserve 80% of ICU beds
Cases, 230,000
Cases, + 4,000 for past eight days
No ICU beds in eight of 11 top private hospitals
Many patients are unable to find a place in hospitals
Mumbai
Third of normal hospital beds still unoccupied
Hospitals busy, ICU scarce
Indian government
Reopened gyms, most workplaces, markets, bars
Cinemas closed
Schools and colleges now reopening
Death tole likely to spine in next few weeks
Netherlands
Population 17.5 million
Distance among children
Up to 12, do not have to stay 1.5 metres apart from each other or from adults
17 and younger, do not have to stay 1.5 metres apart from each other
Source and contact tracing, testing and staying home
COVID-19 symptoms, such as fever, shortness of breath or coughing, stay at home until the symptoms have been gone for 24 hours
Children do not need to be tested, unless they are seriously ill
Preventing the virus from spreading in childcare facilities and schools
Hygiene, hands and frequent touch points, respiratory
Ventilation and airing out indoor spaces
It is important to properly ventilate homes, businesses and other buildings, such as schools
Face masks and gloves
The literature does not offer a clear consensus on the effect of wearing non-medical face masks in public spaces
It seems likely that face masks help prevent infecting others, but only to a limited extent
If everyone follows the basic rules, it is not necessary to wear a face mask
OMT is not issuing a general recommendation to wear face masks in public spaces