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Public health officials have called on people to stay six feet apart to slow the spread of coronavirus through so-called respiratory droplets. But three experts are warning that six feet may not be enough – and they say the world needs to take airborne transmission of the virus seriously.
In a commentary published in the journal Science, the experts called for “regular, widespread testing” to find asymptomatic cases, and they pointed to places where mask wearing is universal and the virus has been controlled, like Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. World Health Organization guidance might not be enough in all situations, they said.
“Evidence suggests that [the novel coronavirus] is silently spreading in aerosols exhaled by highly contagious infected individuals with no symptoms,” wrote Chia Wang of National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan and Kimberly Prather and Dr. Robert Schooley of the University of California, San Diego.
The three experts, who are specialists in chemistry and infectious diseases, said aerosols from breathing and speaking “can accumulate, remain infectious in indoor air for hours, and be easily inhaled deep into the lungs.” That makes wearing masks all the more essential, they said, even when people are keeping their distance.
More on this: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has focused on so-called respiratory droplets produced when a person coughs or sneezes. The droplets don’t linger in the air for long, but the CDC says they “can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.”
Spread is more likely when people are in close contact with one another, or “within about 6 feet,” the CDC says. That’s because respiratory droplets are relatively large and fall to the ground – unlike aerosols, which are smaller and more likely to stay in the air longer.
Despite the focus on droplets from US health officials and others, the experts said “a large proportion of the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) appears to be occurring through airborne transmission of aerosols produced by asymptomatic individuals during breathing and speaking.”
While more research is needed, they called for robust testing schemes and said people need to mask up. “For society to resume, measures designed to reduce aerosol transmission must be implemented, including universal masking and regular, widespread testing to identify and isolate infected asymptomatic individuals,” they said.
At least 100,276 people have died from Covid-19 in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally of cases.
That’s almost twice the number of Americans lost during the entire Vietnam War.
No one knew how bad the coronavirus pandemic would get when the first known virus-related death happened on February 6.
But since then, an average of nearly 900 Americans have died every day from Covid-19.
The victims have represented some of the best of humanity:
An ER doctor who risked his life trying to save others.
A grandmother and refugee who worked tirelessly to provide a better life for her children.
A 36-year-old principal who helped troubled students grow produce for the needy.
A Holocaust survivor who saved dozens of families from genocide.
Remembering the victims: 105 families shared their favorite memories with CNN. Read their stories here.
Watch:
Brazil added 1,086 new coronavirus-related deaths over the last 24 hours, raising the national death toll to 25,598, the country’s health ministry reported Wednesday.
The ministry said 20,599 new cases were also confirmed, bringing the total number of cases to 411,821.
Both chambers of the French Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of the StopCovid smartphone application on Wednesday, despite the contact tracing app being decried by opposition parties for its infringements on individual freedoms.
The vote was purely symbolic and was meant to let French President Emmanuel Macron’s government know that there was political backing for the StopCovid app. After hours of debate, StopCovid was adopted at the National Assembly with 338 votes in favor and 215 votes against. Around midnight, the French Senate voted in favor of the government app by 189 votes in favor to 129 against.
The app had already been given the green light by the National Commission for Digital Freedom on Tuesday. A spokesperson for the National Assembly told CNN on Wednesday that the government “did not need a legal basis in order to deploy the app, because it works on a purely voluntary basis and doesn’t infringe on personal freedom.”
French digital rights association La Quadrature du Net said that between 60% and 80% of the population would need to use the app for it to be useful in the fight against coronavirus.
A global clinical trial using health care workers to test the effectiveness of anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine against coronavirus has been put on hold by the British government.
The study, led by the University of Oxford and Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in Bangkok was set to enlist up to 40,000 frontline workers and staff from Europe, Africa, Asia and South America who have close contact with Covid-19 patients.
In a statement to CNN, MORU said: “We received notice from the UK’s MHRA to pause for now new (enrollment) into our COPCOV study. We responded promptly to the MHRA, addressing their concerns in detail and await their decision. For now, COPCOV study (enrollment) is paused around the globe. The safety of our participants is our first priority, as is preventing illness in front-line healthcare workers.”
The trial was paused on the same day the French government banned doctors from prescribing hydroxychloroquine to Covid-19 patients. The French Health Ministry on Wednesday revoked its authorization for the drug to be given to those with coronavirus, saying that the scientific data available at present does not provide sufficient “evidence of a benefit” to support its use.
On Monday, the World Health Organization said it had temporarily halted the study of hydroxychloroquine as a potential Covid-19 treatment in its Solidarity Trial due to safety concerns. The WHO’s decision was made after an observational study, published in the medical journal The Lancet described how seriously ill Covid-19 patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were more likely to die or develop irregular heart rhythms.
CNN has reached out to the MHRA, Oxford and MORU for further comment.
Mortality rates in Spain were 55% higher than usual between March 10 and May 10 of this year, Spain’s top coronavirus health ministry official said Wednesday.
However, only 27,118 of those additional deaths are linked to Covid-19. A “significant part” of the more than 43,000 deaths between March 10 and May 10 “cannot directly connect to Covid-19 yet,” cautioned Simón.
“If we count the deaths with coronavirus and compare it with the excess, there’s still a significant number of deaths left that could be explained for several reasons,” he added.
Among those reasons, could be an inability or unwillingness to go to a hospital or get medical assistance during the peak of the coronavirus outbreak, Simón said.
“We may have also witnessed some complications in some health centers that didn’t favor survival during a longer period for some of our elderly,” he added.
A number of senior care homes in Spain reported unusually high mortality numbers during the height of the pandemic, but most of the deceased were not tested for Covid-19.
The numbers are emerging now, Simón said, because the country was under strict lockdown during the height of the epidemic, and notifications of deaths may have been delayed due to registry workers not being able to go to their offices, leaving many deaths tallied without a detailed analysis.
El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele says he’s taking hydroxychloroquine as a treatment to prevent Covid-19.
Remember: Hydroxchloroquine is an anti-malarial drug that medical experts have said is an unproven and possibly harmful therapy to ward off coronavirus. President Trump has also claimed he is using the drug.
Bukele touted his use of the drug during a news conference with US Ambassador to El Salvador Ronald Johnson about the donation the US had made of 250 ventilators to the Central American country.
“Sometimes what’s recommended to the people is something different than what’s recommended to the leaders, because I have been recommended to use hydroxychloroquine as a prophylaxis and the probability of this harming you is very low,” Bukele said as he displayed a bottle of what is assumed to be hydroxychloroquine.
Bukele did not say how much he was taking or if the drug was prescribed by a doctor.
The leader added that at the recommendation of the World Health Organization, the drug was no longer part of the country’s coronavirus treatment protocol, but that it would remain available for “those who wish to use it as prophylaxis” or by a doctor’s prescription.
The World Health Organization announced Monday that it has temporarily halted studying hydroxychloroquine as a potential Covid-19 treatment in its Solidarity Trial due to safety concerns.
Chile’s ministry of health reported on Wednesday 4,328 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 82,289.
Health authorities also reported 35 new deaths, bringing the country’s death toll to 841 as of Wednesday afternoon.
Chile has one of the highest infection rates in Latin America following Brazil and Peru.
After the English Premier League conducted more than 1,000 individual Covid-19 tests over the last two days, four players and staff from three clubs were found to have tested positive for the virus.
According to a statement from the Premier League, 1,008 tests were performed.
The Premier League did not provide any specific details as to which clubs or individuals.
The combined four people, players and staff will now self-isolate for a period of seven days.
England will launch a “test and trace” system to track coronavirus aimed at replacing national lockdown restrictions.
Northern Ireland has already launched a contact tracing program, and Scotland and Wales are in the process of launching similar system, he said.
England’s contact tracing program will ask anyone with coronavirus symptoms to isolate immediately, get a coronavirus test, and speak with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) on a voluntary basis. Those who test positive for Covid-19 will be contacted by the NHS within 24 hours.
“This will be voluntary at first because we trust everyone to do the right thing. But we can quickly make it mandatory if that’s what it takes. Because if we don’t make this work, then the only way forward is to keep the lockdown,” Hancock said.
He also announced that England is expanding coronavirus testing to children under five years old.
“Of course testing capacity is critical to making this work. We now have the capacity for 161,000 tests a day,” Hancock said. “We are expanding eligibility for testing to include the ‘under fives’ so now every single person who has symptoms of coronavirus can get a test no matter their age.”
“To protect your friends and your family, testing and tracing must become a new way of life,” he said.
There has been a small increase in the number of new deaths in Italy with 117 — the biggest increase in the last three days.
The total number of fatalities in the country has risen to 33,072, the Italian Civil Protection Agency said Wednesday.
There has also been an uptick in new cases with 584 diagnoses, also the highest in the past week.
The total number of cases in Italy now stands at 231,139.
The overall number of active cases, however, has dropped to 50,966.
Since Tuesday, 2,443 people recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 147,101. There are currently 505 patients in intensive care, 16 fewer than the day before.
All government workers in Dubai have been directed to return to work by June 14, Dubai’s Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said on his Twitter account Wednesday.
He said the government approved a decision Wednesday to allow 50% of Dubai’s government employees to return to work this Sunday, and 100% of government employees to return by mid-June.
Wednesday’s decision was made as Dubai continues to make its “gradual return to normal life with intensified precautionary measures,” the Crown Prince added.
The United Kingdom recorded 412 coronavirus deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 37,460, the Department of Health and Social Care said Wednesday.
According to the latest government data, an additional 2,013 people tested positive for the virus since Tuesday and the total number of confirmed cases in the UK now stands at 267,240.
While the number of individual people tested for coronavirus remain unavailable, the government has confirmed that a total of 3,798,490 tests have been carried out, with 117,013 tests carried out on Tuesday.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Wednesday the European Union Commission’s proposed 750 billion euros ($823 billion) recovery fund “includes many of our demands.”
The proposal to help the European Union economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic includes 500 billion euros ($549 billion) in grants and 250 billion euros ($274 billion) in loans.
“We should reach soon an agreement to have access to resources that will allow us to restart the economy and overcome the crisis,” Sanchez said.
Spain has been among the countries pushing for the package to be based on grants, not loans, which some northern EU countries prefer.
Winegrowers in France have announced they will be thanking some of the country’s frontline healthcare workers by giving away 5,000 free bottles of champagne.
On Tuesday, France’s Champagne Union announced 600 winegrowers plan to give healthcare workers the bottles of champagne in June.
The champagne will come from the regions of Marne, Aube, Aisne, and Haute Marne.
Moscow will begin to gradually ease some coronavirus lockdown restrictions starting June 1, the city’s mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in a video conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin Wednesday.
Sobyanin said the Russian capital would allow the reopening of stores selling non-food items, and would allow some services to resume operation, including laundries, dry cleaners and repair shops.
Muscovites will also be allowed to venture out for walks on a schedule, he added.
Putin praised the mayor, saying the situation in the capital was “stabilizing.”
Sobyanin did not discuss lifting a controversial digital pass system for public transportation.
The numbers: The Russian capital has been hit hard by the pandemic, reporting 171,443 confirmed cases as of Wednesday, just under half the country’s total.
A blueprint to resume flights between Australia and New Zealand will be presented early next month, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
Politicians from Australia and New Zealand have been discussing the possibility of opening up borders to each other, creating a travel corridor – or “travel bubble” – between the two nations.
Ardern said the Trans-Tasman Safe Border Group will present the blueprint in early June to both governments.
The blueprint is expected to include issues such as pre-flight health requirements, onboard aircraft protections, airport safety and contact tracing at arrival destinations.
It’s not clear when the flights will resume – currently both countries have closed their borders to most international visitors and all overseas arrivals are subject to a 14-day quarantine.
Global tourism is expected to plunge by 70% this year, compared to last year, the head of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) said Wednesday.
Previous global crisis situations have caused tourism to decline by 10% to 20%, but the Covid-19 pandemic has been worse, said UNWTO Secretary General Zurab Pololikashvili, in a video press conference with reporters in Madrid.
This summer, more people will take trips by land, rather than on flights, and rural tourism in the mountains, and not on the beaches, may benefit, he said.
The UNWTO expects more international flights to resume starting in September if the virus is more under control by then, he said.
Some more details: In a statement on May 11, the Madrid-based UNWTO said its research through late April found that 100% of the 217 destinations they tracked worldwide had coronavirus-related travel restrictions for international tourists.
As countries begin to reopen for travel, Pololikashvili said Europe will be seen as a model to follow, because it is historically the most visited region, and the best prepared, including its health care infrastructure.
So called “green corridors” which would permit targeted travel between two regions, in different countries, that have demonstrated low infection rates of Covid-19, could be a first step to restarting international tourism, he said.
But Pololikashvili said he prefers to call them “safe corridors,” so that tourists won’t take the virus to their destination and also won’t bring it back home.
French doctors have been banned from prescribing hydroxychloroquine to Covid-19 patients, the government ruled Wednesday.
The French Health Ministry revoked its authorization for the drug to be given to those with coronavirus, saying that the scientific data available at present does not provide sufficient “evidence of a benefit” to support its use.
Data considered by France’s High Council for Public Health found evidence to suggest a link between the use of hydroxychloroquine and “cardiac toxicity,” particularly when used in combination with the azithromycin – an antibiotic used to treat chest infection and other types of infection, according to a Health Ministry statement.
It added that the benefits and risks of this treatment may be reassessed in the future, as new data from clinical research emerges.
Some context: The announcement comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday said it had temporarily halted the study of hydroxychloroquine as a potential Covid-19 treatment in its Solidarity Trial, due to safety concerns.
The WHO’s decision was made after an observational study, published in the medical journal The Lancet on Friday, described how seriously ill Covid-19 patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were more likely to die or develop irregular heart rhythms.
