VENTILATION is key to control of airborne disease. Schools and businesses have immediate needs for better ventilation, and urban design needs to incorporate improved airflow in a post-COVID world. SARS-CoV-2 spreads through the air. The risk of COVID-19 infection is higher in indoor spaces, and it’s even higher when those indoor spaces are poorly ventilated. In this context, ventilation means provision of safe, clean indoor air, not to be confused with ventilation (assisted breathing) of patients in ICU.

Respiratory aerosols from breathing and speaking accumulate in indoor spaces, resulting in increasing risk over time. Spending 10 minutes indoors in a poorly ventilated room is less of a risk than spending hours in there. Many studies of cluster outbreaks of COVID-19 point to airborne transmission as the most likely explanation for infections. Poor ventilation (stagnant air) in public buildings, workplace environments, schools, hospitals, and aged care homes contribute to viral spread.

Good ventilation is one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection, in concert with other mitigations, including density limits, the use of PPE and the use of air purifying devices.

See our detailed advice here:

Safe-Indoor-Air-advice.pdf

Safer Indoor Air for Kids infographic.pdf

Image by Rhododendrites - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=139570600