Nigeria Center For Disease Control Claims COVID-19 Is Airborne

By Nsunjo Erica

Nigeria’s Center for Disease Control (NCDC) claims to have confirmed that new evidence suggests COVID-19 may be transmitted through the air after findings by about 200 scientists.

“This is new evidence, we will keep adapting our guidelines as we progress. It’s not shameful to change guidelines from week to week as new evidence emerges,” NCDC director-general said.

During the briefing of COVID-19, the director-general of the NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu stated that studies of new infections show that the disease may also be airborne.

He explained that before now the virus was believed to only be transmittable through droplets that emanate from the nose and the mouth and fall to the ground however, new evidence says otherwise.

Ihekweazu said that the increasing evidence has emerged over the past few weeks that in addition to droplets infection, the airborne transmission was also a possible mode of COVID-19 transmission. He insists that the World Health Organization should review its guidelines.

“We cannot rule out the airborne transmission, and therefore, we have to act in a precautionary way assuming that this is also possible giving the new evidence that is emerging,” Ihekweazu said.

The World Health Organization had earlier stated in March that COVID-19 is not airborne, the agency said the virus that causes COVID-19 was mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or speaks.

According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 droplets are too heavy to hang in the air therefore they immediately fall on floors or surfaces.

You can be infected by breathing in the virus if you are within one meter of a person who has COVID-19 that’s why you are advised to protect yourself by keeping least one-meter distance from others and disinfect surfaces.

WHO said it would continue to recommend droplet and contact precautions for those people caring for COVID-19 patients and contact and airborne precautions for circumstances and settings in which aerosol-generating procedures are performed.

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