When To Worry About Airborne Risk: Enclosed Spaces With Little Ventilation Create Isolated Virus Loop
A Chinese restaurant where some diners got sick and others didn't has become a prime location for scientists studying whether people can become infected from airborne particles. "If there's a good ventilation system, you're not going to get enough exposure to be infected," infectious disease aerobiologist Dr. Donald Milton told ABC News. "If there isn't good ventilation, then the data suggests that it's crowded, poorly ventilated places where there have been outbreaks." In other news on the science of COVID-19: how long patients test positive, what is happening with immune systems, tracing virus mutations and more.
ABC News:
To Study Coronavirus In The Air, All Eyes On A Chinese Restaurant
A new study of a COVID-19 outbreak tied to a restaurant in China is re-igniting questions about how far the novel coronavirus could spread in the air and how airflow through ventilators or air conditioners, and the air quality itself, could play a role. The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have long maintained that the virus is spread primarily through droplets on surfaces and rarely travels more than six feet in the air, but the recent study, conducted by the Guangzhou Center for Disease Control, suggests that the virus not only passes through person-to-person spread at close range, but can travel farther with help from air currents blowing from ventilation systems. (Folmer, Dastmalchi and Bhatt, 5/1)
Los Angeles Times:
Why Some Patients Keep Testing Positive For The Coronavirus
By his second day in the hospital with COVID-19, Charles Pignal’s mild cough and 102-degree fever had disappeared. Bored and “bouncing off the walls” of his room in the isolation ward at Singapore’s National Center for Infectious Diseases, he felt like he could go out and play a set of tennis. The 42-year-old footwear executive told his mother on the phone, “I’ll be out of here in a couple of days.” (Bengali, 4/30)
NBC News:
'What Is It About Their Immune System?' Rare Complication Seen In Some Kids With COVID-19
Last Friday, high school junior Jameela Barber called her teacher in Dallas County, Texas, to apologize for neglecting to turn in her school work. Her school's principal, Eleanor Webb, said Barber told her teacher she hadn't been feeling well. The next day, Webb said, Barber died of complications from COVID-19. She was 17. Barber's case is rare; only a handful of pediatric deaths related to the coronavirus have been reported in the United States. (Edwards, 4/30)
The Wall Street Journal:
Coronavirus Mutations Map The Global Outbreak
For the first time during a global outbreak, scientists have been able to use genomic data in real time to track how a virus is traveling around the world, revealing sources of outbreaks and shedding light on cases with unknown origins. By identifying mutations in the genetic sequence of samples of the coronavirus, which are markers for various strains, researchers have offered clues to whether some cases came from a local source or elsewhere in the world. (Wang and Umlauf, 4/30)
NBC News:
WHO 'Urgently' Investigating Link Between Coronavirus And Syndrome That Affects Young Kids
The World Health Organization is “urgently” investigating a potential link between the coronavirus and Kawasaki syndrome, an illness of unknown cause that primarily affects children under 5. “We are aware of this newly described syndrome from a number of countries in Europe and potentially a small number of cases in North America,” Dr. Adam Finn, chair of the WHO's European Technical Advisory Group, told a news briefing Thursday. (Austin, 4/30)
CNN:
Read This Before You Go Out In Public Amid The Coronavirus Pandemic
The best way to curb the spread of Covid-19 is to stay home if you can. That's true even now that more than half of US states will start reopening nonessential businesses like salons, restaurants and gyms. This isn't an immediate return to normalcy -- health officials have warned that reopening now could mean a resurgence of the virus. So if you're reentering public spaces, it's imperative to do it safely. (Andrew, 5/1)
GMA:
My Entire Family Survived COVID-19. Here's What I Wish I Knew Earlier
Like many Americans, Hilary Sledge-Sarnor, 38, didn’t know much about the coronavirus in early March. The Los Angeles resident carried on with her busy schedule as a lawyer, going into the office and meeting up with friends. But when her family began getting ill, she quickly saw the toll the disease can take. (Abdul-Hakim, 5/1)
CBS News:
"COVID Toes" And Other Skin Symptoms May Be A Sign Of Coronavirus
There is still much to learn about the novel coronavirus, including a wide range of symptoms that appears to be expanding. Common symptoms of the respiratory illness include fever, cough, shortness of breath and chills, but some doctors have reported less obvious symptoms in some patients — including what some are calling "COVID toes" and other skin ailments. (O'Kane, 4/30)
