ACs Might Have Helped in Spreading Coronavirus in a Restaurant in China, Suggests Study

There have been numerous theories and studies on the origin and spread of novel Coronavirus. While some suggest it to be a man-made virus, most of the researches have claimed novel coronavirus to be originated from animals.

Another recent study has focused on how air conditioners might have aided in the spread of novel coronavirus from one person to 10 another. The study, published on the website of Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is approved by the Ethics Committee of the Guangzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the data collected, the deadly virus spread to 10 people in three families, namely A, B and C from January 26 to February 10, 2020. The only similarity between these families was there outing to the same air-conditioned restaurant in Guangzhou, China.

One of the families, which earlier made a visit to Wuhan in Hubei Province, visited the restaurant on January 24. One of the family members (index case-patient 1 – A1) caught the virus on the visit to the ground zero of the deadly disease. This A1 spread the disease to three other family members (A2, A3 and A4). Family B and C, sitting on the neighbouring chairs, also caught the virus from A1.

The transmission resulted in nine new cases from patient A1, including 4 members of family A, 3 members of Family B and 2 patients from family C.

The conclusions suggest that the only possible way of virus transmission is the exposure to contaminated aerosols. The droplet transmission was said to be prompted by air-conditioned ventilation.