Here are some of the answers to the questions on COVID-19 you asked us this week.
We’re breaking down what you need to know about the pandemic. Send us your questions via email at COVID@cbc.ca and we’ll answer as many as we can. We’ll publish a selection of answers every weekday on our website, and we’re also putting some of your questions to the experts on the air during The National and on CBC News Network. So far we’ve received more than 45,000 emails from all corners of the country.
Can the air blowing from air conditioning and fans spread the coronavirus?
We’ve received a lot of questions from readers like Amy C. concerned about the risks of catching the coronavirus from air conditioning and whether the units are safe to use during the pandemic.
First, it’s important to understand that the virus that causes COVID-19 isn’t airborne, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The scientific consensus is the virus is primarily spread through droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
So could turning on the AC or a fan blow these droplets at you?
In a statement, the Public Health Agency of Canada said there’s “no evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus gets into and is dispersed by heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.”
The agency said that as a precaution, you should ensure “appropriate ventilation to reduce the risk of propelling droplets between spaces, especially from an infected person’s space to that of others.”
“The use of fans and single air conditioning units in an indoor space where the space is shared by multiple people could, potentially, facilitate the dispersion of infected droplets,” it said.
That means that if someone who has the virus coughs or sneezes, and there’s a fan in the room, the fan could potentially spread droplets further than they’d normally go.
One preliminary, non-peer-reviewed study published on the Centers for Disease Control website suggests the source of a January outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Guangzhou, China, “was prompted by air-conditioned ventilation.”
The woman deemed to have been the source of the outbreak was seated in an air-conditioned restauran