Increased airborne transmission of COVID-19 with new variants, implications for health policies.

ABSTRACT: New COVID-19 variants, either of higher viral load such as delta or higher contagiousness like omicron, can lead to higher airborne transmission than historical strains. This paper highlights their implications for health policies, based on a clear analytical understanding and modeling of the airborne contamination paths, of the dose following exposure, and the importance of the counting unit for pathogens, itself linked to the dose-response law. Using the counting unit of Wells, i.e. the quantum of contagium, we develop the conservation equation of quanta which allows deriving the value of the quantum concentration at steady state for a well-mixed room. The link with the monitoring concentration of carbon dioxide is made and used for a risk analysis of a variety of situations for which we

SUBMITTER: Rowe BR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9095081 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature