As restrictions are lifted, residents of Tampa Bay and elsewhere wonder: “Is it safe to go to places we’ve avoided for the past 6 weeks?” Especially now that restaurants are opening, even at limited capacity, it’s on our minds more than ever if there really is that big of a risk of contracting COVID-19. Some of us who haven’t made or bought cloth masks are now making them, myself included. While we are very familiar with the N95 masks, the need is still there to have the cloth option. All this is in hopes that we can enjoy the freedom that has just been opened to us. But the question still remains, how safe is to venture out again and eat in restaurants and the like?
It’s been established that less airborne transmission occurs when at a safe distance and when in outside air (Tellier, Cowling et al., 2019). But what about inside a restaurant with no windows? According to a recent limited study done of an outbreak of COVID-19 that occurred in a restaurant in China it’s really not that safe. Some factors to seriously consider is not only the droplet transmission that occurs from one affected person to others but also the ventilation of the restaurant. In this study, the ventilation could have contributed to infecting others at are farther range than what we consider safe. A key factor in the study was that those affected were in the direction of the airflow of the asymptomatic person who infected others at the tables nearby. (Lu, Gu, Li, Xu, Su Lai et al., 2020). This study suggests that even if we are at a table farther away the direction of the airflow could cause the aerosolized droplets to reach us or our loved ones we are dining with. If it reaches our loved ones, it will eventually affect us as well in time.
In a recent class I took, one leader in the air quality arena stated, “dilution is the solution to pollution.” There is nothing better than fresh air. I think I will be still dining at home and supporting my local restaurants with take out for now!
Lu J, Gu J, Li K, Xu C, Su W, Lai Z, et al. COVID-19 outbreak associated with air conditioning in restaurant, Guangzhou, China, 2020. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020 Jul [date cited]. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2607.200764
Tellier, R., Li, Y., Cowling, B.J. et al. Recognition of aerosol transmission of infectious agents: a commentary. BMC Infect Dis 19, 101 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-019-3707-y