Björn Birnir, a professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, believes that the specific coronavirus infection which took place at The Irishman in Reykjavík the week before last was airborne, a report from Vísir revealed this morning.
Björn has researched other group infections which took place in Asia—one at a restaurant and a bus in China, and another at a call centre in South Korea. The point of Björn’s research has been to show that coronavirus infection can take place indoors even when preventative measures such as social distancing and frequent cleaning are followed.
The Irishman infection
“It is most likely that there was a mist in the air that was spread between carriers of the virus. This is nothing new,” said Björn.
Björn has therefore recommended that people pay more attention to indoor air quality, and this is something epidemiological authorities have focussed on more following his research. Airborne infection is many times more likely to occur indoors than outdoors—Björn quoted a Japanese study from April which estimated it at 20 times more likely—hence the importance of masks in enclosed spaces. For this same reason, Björn would like to change the proximity rule when indoors from one metre to two metres.
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