The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, has declared that the transmission of the COVID-19 virus could also be possibly airborne.
He urged all citizens to wear face masks and adhere to protective protocols of which includes avoiding mass gatherings, practicing social distancing, washing and proper sanitizing of hands with alcohol-based hand sanitizers and maintaining proper body and environmental hygiene.
During a briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 that took place in Abuja on Monday July 13th, Ihekweazu spoke.
He made it known that the prior knowledge of the virus was that it was believed to only be transmittable through droplets which come out from the nostrils and the mouth and fall to the ground but studies had however shown from new infections that the disease might also be airborne.
He said, ” Over the past few weeks, increasing evidence has emerged that in addition to droplet infection, we cannot rule out that airborne transmission is also possible as a mode of transmission of COVID-19.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its guidelines on this saying exactly the same thing, that we cannot rule out airborne transmission. Therefore, we have to act in a precautionary way assuming that this is also possible given the new evidence that is emerging”.
“This means that staying together in closed spaces and clusters such as in restaurants and in small rooms with very poor ventilation increases the risk of transmission. Indoor activities are riskier than outdoors activities especially when there are many people in the room when we don’t adhere to distancing them and when we don’t wear masks”, he also added.
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