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A new joint study says that without mask wearing, a two-metre physical distancing guideline may not be enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19 indoors, however, wearing a mask can reduce the contamination range of airborne particles by approximately 67 per cent.

The study, published in the December volume of the journal Building and Environment, was conducted by researchers at McGill University, Universite de Sherbrooke, Texas A&M University, and Northern Illinois University. The research was based on models that examined the flow of liquids and gasses in indoor spaces using a computer program that accurately simulated coughing dynamics.

“Mask mandates and good ventilation are critically important to curb the spread of more contagious strains of COVID-19, especially during the flu season and winter months as more people socialize indoors,” said study author Saad Akhtar in a release.

Coughing is one of the main sources of spread of airborne viruses from symptomatic individuals, and currently, most public health guidelines recommend a distance of two metres for physical distancing between people who are not from the same household to address this.

However, the study found that when people are unmasked, more than 70 per cent of airborne particles pass the two-metre threshold within 30 seconds. By comparison, less than one per cent of particles cross the two-metres mark if masks are worn.

Coughing simulations run by the study found that particles can reach distances as far as five metres away or more if the person is unmasked and depending on ventilation and air conditioning.

The effect of mask wearing indoors on the spread of particles over a 30 second interval can be seen here in a coughing simulation run by the joint study. (McGill University/ Building and Environment Journal)

The study found that ventilation, a person’s posture, and mask-wearing impacted the spread of particles significantly, but age and gender had only marginal impacts.

“This study advances the understanding of how infectious particles can spread from a source to its surroundings and can help policymakers and governments make informed decisions about guidelines for masks and distancing in indoor settings,” Akhtar said.

Source: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/without-masks-2-metre-distancing-not-enough-to-prevent-spread-of-covid-19-indoors-study-1.5611798

Written by Christy Somos

Newfoundland and Labrador has only just lifted its mask mandate, but public health officials are still strongly recommending wearing one.

Some places, such as hospitals, long-term care homes and courthouses still require people to cover up, but many private businesses are giving customers an option.

Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Lisa Barrett says one good reason to wear a mask is to help those who have not or cannot be vaccinated yet.

“There are a lot of factors that go into whether masks are essential at the moment, but certainly it would not be unreasonable to consider wearing them in large spaces with lots of travelers and lots of people still waiting to be vaccinated,” said Barrett, who works at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Barrett said Atlantic Canadians have been lucky that COVID-19 is fairly under control in their region, but she says it’s still important to protect vulnerable populations.

Children under 12, for example, are still unable to receive a vaccination.

“There’s a good chunk of people, including children, who do not get vaccinated at the moment because they can’t, and we have to keep that in mind as we go forward,” said Barrett, who is originally from Old Perlican, N.L.

“Especially while we’re still learning more about this virus and what the long-term side effects might be.”

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/lisa-barrett-mask-mandate-1.6138032

The CDC advised Americans on Tuesday to wear masks in public indoor settings, even if fully immunized, just two months after recommending that vaccinated people can avoid donning masks indoors, and only weeks after four Canadian provinces relaxed their own rules around mask wearing.

The reversal by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was prompted by the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant and rising COVID-19 case numbers across the country.

British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and PEI stopped requiring masks in most indoor settings earlier this month in response to a surge in Canadian vaccination rates. Those provinces say they have no plans to tighten indoor mask mandates, despite the urging of health experts who say mask wearing will help curb the spread of the Delta variant. New Brunswick is set to remove its mask mandate on Friday.

Meanwhile, case numbers in Canada are rising. Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said in a statement Tuesday that Canada saw a 36-per-cent increase in pandemic cases between July 20-26 compared with the previous week, while severe illness resulting from COVID-19 has continued to decline.

She said the Delta variant, which has infected vaccinated people on rare occasions, is one of the most prevalent strands in the country. The spread of Delta forced Israel to reimplement a mask mandate in late June, just 10 days after lifting it, when daily cases rose from zero to triple digits.

Dr. Tam encouraged people to continue wearing masks to help reduce the spread. Public Health Agency of Canada spokeswoman Tammy Jarbeau said in an e-mail that the agency does not expect that guidance to change any time soon.

However, Alberta Health spokeswoman Lisa Glover said in an e-mail that the province’s mask mandate will remain lifted for most public indoor settings, as it has been since July 1, but that the province will continue to monitor and adapt its approach as needed. Masking is now only compulsory for those who work or visit continuing-care facilities, hospitals and other acute-care facilities; and when using public transit or rideshares and taxis.

“While masking is currently required in certain settings, we encourage all Albertans to assess their individual situation and risk factors when making decisions about whether they wish to wear a mask in other locations,” Ms. Glover said in the e-mail.

B.C. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry said Tuesday that although the province lifted its mask mandate, residents are still encouraged to wear masks to protect themselves and others.

“We are getting there, but we’re not yet at the place where we can let up these measures and our recommendations to everybody will continue to be wearing masks in indoor public spaces, particularly when they’re crowded spaces,” Dr. Henry said.

PEI Chief Public Health Officer Heather Morrison said that the province, which only has two active cases, plans to continue living mask-free. Dr. Morrison attributes PEI’s success to strong vaccination rates and testing of most who enter PEI’s boundaries.

“Masking is an additional layer of protection but not our first layer of protection,” Dr. Morrison said. “If we need to change things at any point, we will.”

Like PEI, Saskatchewan also plans to continue to do without masks, and to rely on vaccines to keep case numbers low.

“Vaccination continues to offer residents the best protection against COVID-19 and its variants, and the province continues to focus on increasing vaccination rates,” said Colleen Book, director of communications at the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health.

Guidelines around mask wearing have evolved since the start of the pandemic. After being deemed unnecessary for healthy individuals by some Canadian public-health officials in March, 2020, Dr. Tam soon recommended their use in light of new research.

Shannon Majowicz, an epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Waterloo, said she expects provincial mask mandates to come back into place, given the virality of the Delta variant. She thinks it would be the right move.

“I’m not in a rush to see masking lifted because I do think it is one of the things that will let us have a lot more of activities possible,” she said. “Vaccines work best when they have less work to do, and masking is the way to do that.”

Dr. Majowicz said Canada’s high inoculation rate made it possible to consider removing mask mandates. According to recent data, almost 65 per cent of residents older than 12 were fully vaccinated.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that Canada has enough doses to fully inoculate everybody eligible, a milestone hit two months ahead of schedule. Dr. Majowicz said, however, that it could take a vaccination percentage in the high nineties to really get rid of masks without fear of seeing more case surges.

For that to happen, she said, children 12 and under must receive their doses. That age group is still waiting for vaccines to become available. Until that happens, she calls it a no-brainer to continue wearing masks.

“Why wouldn’t you put a protective measure over your face? It’s a relatively easy measure we can take that really does make a substantial difference,” Dr. Majowicz said. “We are so close to near normalcy.”

 

Source: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-provinces-wont-tighten-indoor-mask-rules-despite-rising-covid-19-cases/

Written by: ALEX CYR AND CHANTELLE LEE

The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging fully vaccinated people to continue wearing face masks and follow physical distancing measures as the highly infectious Delta variant spurs new COVID-19 outbreaks around the world.

At a press briefing in Geneva on Friday, WHO officials said masks should stay on, even for those who have received both doses of a vaccine series.

“Vaccine alone won’t stop community transmission,” said Mariangela Simao, the WHO’s assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products. “People need to continue to use masks consistently, be in ventilated spaces, hygiene, physical distance, avoid crowding.”

Simao said public health measures continue to be “extremely important” as countries cope with outbreaks of the COVID-19 Delta variant, despite high vaccination rates.

“People cannot feel safe just because they’ve had the two doses. They still need to protect themselves,” Simao said.

While COVID-19 vaccines have shown to be effective in preventing severe disease and death, including against the Delta variant, WHO officials say it is a “dangerous variant” and fully vaccinated people can be part of its transmission chain if measures aren’t maintained.

The news comes as countries continue to ease public health measures and offer new guidelines for those who are fully vaccinated.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on May 13 that fully vaccinated Americans do not need to wear masks outdoors and can avoid wearing them indoors in most places.

Canadian guidance, released on Thursday, suggests that those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can hug each other, attend barbecues and have a small group of friends over for dinner without wearing a mask or staying apart.

However, the Public Health Agency of Canada says Canadians might still want to protect themselves in certain situations such as at crowded concerts, sports events or house parties.

The Delta variant, first identified in India, has now become the dominant strain in the U.K. and accounts for about one in every five new coronavirus infections in the U.S.

Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam warned on Friday that the Delta variant continues to pose a real risk in Canada based on international experience.

Between April 25 and May 23, Canada saw a four-fold increase in the proportion of Delta cases, with the majority of them being found in unvaccinated or partially-vaccinated people, according to the latest modelling data.

The modelling shows that if the Delta variant becomes the predominant strain, Canada could once again risk exceeding hospitalization capacity as the variant is 50 per cent more transmissible than the original strain of COVID-19, and results in more severe infections.

However, if Canada hits around 80 per cent of the population fully vaccinated, the modelling suggests that a fourth wave could be avoided.

Until that mass vaccination level is reached, Tam suggested that personal protective measures like mask-wearing will remain important.

 

Source: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/who-urges-fully-vaccinated-people-to-wear-masks-as-delta-variant-cases-surge-1.5489999

Written by: Brooklyn Neustaeter

As more regions in Canada start reopening, and millions of people return to restaurants, gyms, stores and salons, infectious diseases experts say there are some crucial precautions both business owners and individuals should maintain to prevent more infections.

Unlike in the North and the Atlantic provinces, where lower case counts meant more businesses could operate at closer-to-normal levels throughout much of the pandemic, several provinces hard-hit by COVID-19 cases are only easing their latest rounds of public health restrictions starting in the weeks ahead.

Alberta revealed its plan to fully reopen by early July on Wednesday, following on the heels of Saskatchewan, Quebec, Ontario and B.C. — provinces that are all aiming to gradually lift restrictions over the coming weeks and months, if case counts keep going down while vaccination rates go up.

That means shopping, dining, playing sports, working in an office, attending school in-person, and gathering with family and friends will all likely be part of daily life again soon in more regions.

“Yes, things are opening up,” said Dr. Stephanie Smith, a professor in the infectious diseases division at the University of Alberta’s department of medicine and the university’s director of infection prevention and control.

“But we can’t just abandon all the measures that we’ve put in place.”

That means maintaining public health precautions such as mask-wearing, physical distancing and basic hand hygiene — and, in the case of some workplaces, upgrading their ventilation — during this transition period back to normal life, since many Canadians remain vulnerable and unvaccinated.

“We have to recognize that although our case numbers are going down … there still is some COVID circulating in the community,” Smith said.

Ventilation, mask-wearing both key

Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Srinivas Murthy, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, said Canadians need to be approaching transmission risk based on the most up-to-date understanding of how the virus transmits.

“In an ideal world, we would have clear public health guidance from each of our respective authorities,” he said. “What you should and shouldn’t do in this context.”

The 3 Cs approach developed in Japan — avoiding closed spaces, crowded places, and close-contact settings — sums up the best lessons we’ve learned so far about how to curb transmission, Murthy said.

Epidemiological case studies have also reported long-range virus transmission beyond a few metres in a variety of indoor settings, such as churches, restaurants, concert halls and office buildings, notes a report released earlier this month from Public Health Ontario, which signals the need to boost airflow indoors or stay outside whenever possible.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Open a window,'” said Smith. “But the reality is, when we start looking at mandating people to use HEPA filtration and everything, it’s on a different level. There are costs associated with that.”

So, it may be financially challenging for smaller businesses to address ventilation concerns. However, larger workplaces such as factories, which have been common sites for outbreaks, need to get to the root of their transmission problems and work with local public health officials to find solutions, Smith said.

“A store, for the most part, people are going in and out. They’re in there for a very short period of time, and at this point, are masked,” she said. “At a meat-packing plant, people are going to be working for eight hours a day and they’re often in close quarters.”

Improving ventilation is generally helpful, echoed Dr. Alex Wong, an infectious diseases physician in Regina. He said mask-wearing will also likely be a staple of daily life for months to come until more Canadians get vaccinated.

South of the border, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently eased indoor mask-wearing guidance for people who are fully vaccinated, allowing them to safely stop wearing masks inside in most spaces.

But Wong said since Canada’s rate of fully vaccinated individuals still lags behind the U.S., we’re not quite at that point yet, meaning face coverings remain a crucial tool to protect vulnerable individuals as more people start mingling and returning to workplaces.

“Masking continues to make a huge amount of sense in indoor, public spaces,” he said.

Shift away from surface-based precautions

What makes less sense, according to Murthy, is for businesses and individuals to skip those measures while overly relying on methods to prevent surface-based transmission, which most researchers agree isn’t a primary way people get infected.

“Way back when, when we were wiping down groceries or cleaning our fruit well to avoid COVID-19; we’ve learned a lot since then,” he sai

That focus on surfaces started early on, and included practices such as office buildings investing in regular cleanings, cashiers wiping down debit machines, and mandatory hand sanitizer at storefront entrances.

At this point, Murthy is among those unsure about just how many infections are being prevented through those methods, with some experts even dubbing the practices “hygiene theatre” — an approach that promotes a feeling of safety, more than it actually contributes to stopping virus transmission.

“Current evidence strongly suggests transmission from contaminated surfaces does not contribute substantially to new infections,” notes the latest guidance from the CDC.

According to Smith, there is a degree of fomite spread, but “it’s certainly much less than we initially thought.”

“Is handwashing important?” she said. “Yes, it still is.”

Many experts do recommend that step as a precaution to prevent people from getting infected after touching their face or mouth.

Still, Murthy stressed that businesses and individuals should focus more energy on maintaining adequate distancing and ventilation as regions start reopening, “rather than aggressively emphasizing hand-sanitizing at every entry point.”

Provinces at ‘different points’

As more Canadians become fully vaccinated, or even get one dose, there’s growing hope it will be easier to start lifting even the most stringent restrictions in the months ahead.

“If you’re gathering in a group with people who are fully vaccinated, certainly the risk is much less,” Smith said.

While Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, says provinces should only begin to lift public health restrictions once 75 per cent of adults have at least one vaccine dose — and 20 per cent are fully vaccinated — most provinces are moving at a quicker pace.

That’s no surprise to Wong, who said different regions are at different points, meaning there’s no universal, countrywide timeline for life to go back to normal.

In some Canadian regions, it’s already closer to business as usual with various non-essential industries up and running, while the provinces set to reopen soon are finally experiencing dropping case counts as vaccination rates rise.

Meanwhile, Manitoba is actually extending restrictions during its devastating third wave as the province’s ICUs keep filling up with COVID-19 patients, with some even being transferred to hospitals in Ontario.

“We’re all at very different points of our curve,” Wong said.

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid-provinces-reopening-precautions-1.6041638

Written by Lauren Pelley