The World Health Organisation believes "evidence (are) emerging" that the novel coronavirus could be spread through the air and infect people. Several scientists came together and wrote to the WHO to update the COVID-19 prevention steps.
On Tuesday, in a news briefing, Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead at the WHO for COVID-19 pandemic said, "We have been talking about the possibility of airborne transmission and aerosol transmission as one of the modes of transmission of COVID-19."
Since the inception of coronavirus, the WHO has informed the entire world that, respiratory diseases caused by COVID-19 is spread through small droplets expelled by an infected human through their nose and mouth.
However, on Monday in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, 239 scientists from 32 countries sketched out that particles of the virus were found floating which could easily infect anyone and everyone on breathing it in. If there's no immediate action taken by the WHO, it can turn out to be fatal.
Benedetta Allegranzi, the WHO's technical lead for infection prevention and control, spoke at the Tuesday's briefing in Geneva and said, "it can't be ruled out that there's evidence emerging as COVID-19 could be airborne, but the evidence isn't definitive."
She added, "The possibility of airborne transmission in public settings - especially in very specific conditions, crowded, closed, poorly ventilated settings that have been described, cannot be ruled out. However, the evidence needs to be gathered and interpreted, and we continue to support this."
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Government bodies around the world, heavily depend on WHO's guidance to prevent any disease, its recommendation to maintain one meter of physical distance can be affected if COVID-19 proves to be airborne. Several amendments have to be made in social distancing norms and public safety.
Maria Van Kerkhove said, "A comprehensive package of interventions is required to be able to stop transmission. This includes not only physical distancing, it includes the use of masks where appropriate in certain settings, specifically where you can't do physical distancing and especially for healthcare workers."
