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ARCHIVED - Murcia scientists test Covid traps for early detection of the virus in public spaces
Testing in a Murcia hospital demonstrates the risk of airborne transmission
As scientists continue to learn more about the importance of aerosols (the minute particles we exhale when breathing) in the transmission of the Covid-19 virus a team from the Bio-Sanitary Research Institute of Murcia (IMIB) has developed a new device which they call a “Covid trap”, and have shown its effectiveness in a test performed in a hospital rather than in an isolated laboratory.
The trap consists of a series of different surfaces contained in boxes and protected by a plastic mesh so that people cannot touch them. According to an article published in the Science of Total Environment magazine, traps placed over a metre above patients diagnosed with coronavirus were found to retain the virus on two kinds of surface (polypropylene and glass), demonstrating the existence of airborne transmission.
The implication is that such traps could be used for the early detection of the virus in enclosed or public spaces such as schools, medical centres or indoor leisure establishments such as cinemas, theatres and restaurants, making mass testing unnecessary in many cases and avoiding the need for them to be closed down.
The trials of the traps were carried out in the rooms occupied by 6 Covid patients at the Hospital Clínico Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca in El Palmar, just south of the city of Murcia, and only in one room was the virus found on the polypropylene and glass surfaces 72 hours later.
However, the team claim that this shows the high risk of airborne transmission since the air in each of the rooms in the Arrixaca is renewed every minute, all of the new air coming from outside the building, according to lead author Esteban Orenes Piñero. The positive result was obtained in the room of a patient fitted with nasal cannulae, and Sr Orenes concludes that there is no way for the virus to have been collected in the trap other than by airborne transmission.
A second phase of testing is now under way in an effort to establish whether the use of nasal cannulae might favour the formation of infected aerosols and airborne transmission, and eventually Sr Orenes believes that if the traps are put to use in certain locations they could be highly effective in making it possible for many venues to remain open.
In the meantime, though, he underlines the need for frequent disinfection in the areas of hospitals which are occupied by coronavirus patients in order to avoid staff becoming infected, as well as reiterating the recommendation for members of the general public to continue wearing masks and washing their hands diligently.