Cases In China Prove The Effect Of Air Conditioning In The Spread Of COVID-19

Photo illustration (Ashkan Forouzani / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - A recent study from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirms that the new corona virus can spread more massively in air-conditioned rooms. The study involved ten COVID-19 patients from three families who contracted it after eating at the same restaurant in Southern China. As a result, it turned out to be true that an air conditioner (AC) helped spread the droplets between them.

"The strong airflow from the air conditioner can spread droplets," wrote a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study looked at the spread of air conditioning that occurred between three dining tables in a restaurant in Guangzhou City in January.

The research report by Jianyu Lu and his friends recommends, to avoid this, restaurants should increase the distance between tables and increase ventilation to reduce the risk of infection.

In the study, it was explained how the first patient of ten cases studied in Guangzhou on January 23 had just returned from the city of Wuhan, where the first coronavirus was discovered.

A few days later, the man had lunch with three family members in a restaurant with no windows and air conditioning on every floor. Meanwhile, two other families sat next to the table of the first patient. Their distance is only about one meter apart with the duration of their meal of approximately one hour.

After eating, the first patient developed a fever and cough that very day and went straight to the hospital. Then, within two weeks, four members of the first patient's family, three members of the second family who sat next to him and two of the third family became infected with COVID-19.

Finally, after the completion of the study, it was revealed that the only known source of transmission in the second and third families came from the first patient at the aforementioned restaurant.

The new research has just appeared in the July issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by the US CDC. That is, this study affirms that the spread of the corona virus from someone's droplets via air conditioning is very possible.