• Live: last minute of the coronavirus
  • Health: this is how the tests that detect the coronavirus work
  • Confinement: The coronavirus challenge: when to "deliver the cured"?

When we are used to seeing the desolate landscape of our deserted cities, only dotted by a few neighbors who walk the dog or carry shopping bags with their faces completely covered, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirms this: Masks are not effective as a personal protection measure because the Covid-19 coronavirus is not transmitted through the air.

In a study published this weekend, the WHO analyzes the forms of transmission of the virus that Covid-19 causes, and the conclusion it reaches is that the coronavirus is transmitted only by contact with respiratory droplets that a infected person projects when sneezing or coughing, and there is no evidence of airborne transmission.

"Droplet transmission occurs when a person who is in close contact (less than a meter) with another who has respiratory symptoms (such as coughs or sneezes) and is thus at risk of putting their own mucosa (mouth and nose) or their eyes exposed to their potentially infectious respiratory droplets, "explains the WHO study," thus, contagion can occur by direct contact with an infected person or by contact with a surface or an object that has been used. "

Transmission by air would mean, the paper continues, the permanence of infected particles in the air, so that the coronavirus would be transmissible over a meter. In the specific context of Covid-19 , this air transmission only occurs in very specific circumstances linked to medical treatments in which an aerosol effect is generated, such as intubation or assisted breathing.

The WHO emphasizes "the rational use of personal protective equipment, not just masks" in the case of health workers, and stresses the need for them to be available to these personnel. The coronavirus is not transmitted through the air except in treatment situations, therefore the masks should be reserved for toilets.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19
  • Science and health

Stories The new panic society: how the coronavirus has mutated our fears

Health "If health centers close, who cares for 80% of those mildly affected by coronavirus"

Coronavirus: Spain comes out onto the balconies to say "thank you" to the restrooms