A website has been created created by the University of Cambridge to reveal the risk of coronavirus infection in indoor spaces.
The app has several customizable settings that include the level of ventilation, the number of occupants, and the level of activity and mask placement.
Anyone can use it to find out the level of risk you take while in a room of virtually any size or type.
For each set of parameters, the site produces a graph showing the possibility of infection over a defined period of time, with the default value of 9 to 17 hours.
The site is called Airborne.cam and can be accessed here.
A website built by the University of Cambridge has been programmed to reveal the risk of coronavirus infection indoors, and the university uses it to locate vets and make them safer from Covid (stocks).
The online tool shows that in an office of 30 people of 100 square meters with ceilings three meters high, the risk of a person catching the virus from 9 to 17 hours if a person is infected and no one wears masks is the 6.06 percent (pictured)
The graph he creates that shows an individual’s risk of infection is calculated using a series of scientific equations described in a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
Users can determine the occupancy of the room, the type of mask and the level of activity. Mask settings do not include any masks, surgical masks, N95 masks, or fabric coatings.
The level of activity can also be altered, from sitting / breathing to intense exercise.
Ventilation can also be altered, with six options ranging from poor ventilation to industrial hospital ventilation.
Scholars have also incorporated dimensions of the room and a period of time that is taken into account in the equation.
As part of their research, the scientists found that two people chatting freely in a poorly ventilated space without wearing a mask have a higher risk of infection than if one of them coughed.
In the same office and with a uniform configuration, if everyone wears a surgical mask all day and takes an hour off at lunchtime outside, it only drops to 2.13% (pictured)
In the image, the various parameters that users can alter to calculate a specific level of individual risk for a space through the Airborne.cam website
They say this is because talking leads to the exhalation of small drops called aerosols that float around a small space.
Without proper ventilation, they can remain in the air, increasing the risk of a person inhaling them and subsequently becoming infected.
However, the cough produces large drops, much heavier and likely to fall to the nearest surface and not be suspended in the air.
“Our knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission has evolved at an incredible rate, considering that only a year has passed since the virus was identified,” said Dr. Pedro de Oliveira, first author of the document.
“There are different ways to approach this problem. In our work, we consider the wide range of respiratory droplets that humans exhale to demonstrate different scenarios of aerial viral transmission: the first is the rapid spread of small infectious droplets in several meters. in a matter of seconds, which can happen both indoors and outdoors.outdoors.
“Next, we show how these small drops can accumulate in long-term indoor spaces and how they can be mitigated with proper ventilation.”
The free online tool shows that in an office of 30 people of 100 square meters (1,076 square feet) with ceilings three meters high, there is a risk that a person will catch the virus from 9 to 17 hours if a person is infected and no one wears masks is 6.06 percent.
If all office members wear a surgical mask all day and take an hour off at lunchtime outside, they only fall to 2.13%.
But if three people work in a medium-sized dining room (18 square feet / 193 square feet) with little ventilation and one person is infected, the risk of catching the virus for eight hours is 48.73%.
The calculations are based on the assumption that “hands are washed and individuals are very far apart, i.e. there is no risk of short-range drop / spray transmission.”
The tool is being actively used by the University of Cambridge, which has made it a prerequisite for high-risk spaces in the institution that will allow staff to introduce mitigating factors, such as reduced capacity or increased ventilation. .
“The tool can help people use fluid mechanics to make better decisions and adapt their daily activities and environments to suppress risk, both for themselves and for others,” said co-author Savvas Gkantonas, who lead the development of the application with Dr. of Oliveira.
A similar tool was previously created by Atlantic Ocean researchers at MIT.
The tool reveals that the size or type of room doesn’t matter as much, but what types of masks the people occupying it wear and the ventilation system they are equipped with can increase or decrease the risks.
In a standard room with 8-foot-high ceilings and each wall measuring about 15 feet long, 10 fit young men, diligently wearing surgical masks, could sit there talking normally for two hours if the windows were closed due to of cold temperatures outside.
But for a family of ten, some of whom are elderly, in a standard dining room where no one wears a mask because they eat and the windows are closed because it’s cold outside, and there are some heated discussions voices : The tool reveals that the security limit is reduced to just three minutes.
Its developers say the online site allows people to calculate risk with more nuances than the simple and often vague orientation to form “bubbles” or social distance.
Authors John Bush and Martin Bazant posted calculations reporting the site to the medRxiv pe-print server.
Setting up the MIT tool for homes, schools, and restaurants suggests that a couple of people anywhere are likely to be safe for days in a home with more space or hours in a restaurant, but once the rooms are denser busy, increases the risk