Washington (AFP)

The US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) officially added the airway as a possible mode of spread of the coronavirus on Monday, agreeing with the opinion of many scientists who have been arguing for months for better consideration of this risk.

The CDC updated their health recommendations on their site on Monday, writing: "Some infections can be transmitted by exposure to the virus in small droplets and particles that can hang in the air for minutes or hours. These viruses could be capable of infecting people who are more than six feet (about two meters, note) from the infected person, or after the departure of this person ".

Measles, chickenpox and tuberculosis are also transmitted through the air.

CDC experts believe that the main route of contagion remains respiratory droplets of various sizes thrown nearby by an infected person, when they cough, sneeze, sing, speak or breathe.

But the update, ten months after the start of the pandemic, confirms the validity of multiple studies demonstrating that the coronavirus, without being as contagious as measles, may well be transmitted more than two meters away, a hypothesis that was neglected by the CDC and the World Health Organization when the virus called SARS-CoV-2 appeared.

The CDC notes the importance of ventilation in indoor spaces to prevent contamination.

In contrast, infection from a contaminated surface is "not considered a common form of the spread of Covid-19", write the CDC.

For the health organization, the precautions to be taken do not change: physical distancing, wearing a mask, washing hands, avoiding crowded indoor places, and isolating yourself when you are sick.

A group of American scientists was pushing for an update to official health guidelines, based on an outdated distinction between droplets and aerosols dating from the 1930s.

"Viruses in aerosols can hang in the air for many seconds and hours, like smoke, and can be inhaled," experts from the universities of California, Maryland, Virginia Tech and others wrote on Monday. in a joint letter.

© 2020 AFP