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A new COVID calculator worth checking out
Ever wondered if your efforts in fighting COVID-19 is paying off? Apart from washing hands and wearing a face mask when in public, there are several things that we can do.
One important step that everyone should be doing is to make sure all delivered packages or disinfected properly. Tap or click here for step-by-step instructions on properly sanitizing packages.
Another essential thing to keep in mind is the level of risk you’re taking by working in the office or dining at your favorite restaurant. Thankfully there is a new COVID risk calculator that can help.
Here’s the backstory
To visually represent the chances of infection through aerosol droplets while in a confined space like an office, hospital or school, researchers from Cambridge University have developed the incredibly useful Airborne.cam website.
When you input all the variables from your space, like room size, amount of people and ventilation, the website will chart a graph of individual risk of infection. If you are going outside, Google Maps can now show you where the COVID hotspots are. Tap or click here to see how to use it.
The U.S is currently breaking daily COVID-19 infection and death records. According to Johns Hopkins University, the country is fast approaching 25 million confirmed cases. Deaths also crossed a grim milestone this week, topping over 400,000.
The Airborne.cam website was specifically developed to help slow the spread of the virus. The creators explained that it would help users understand the risks of everyday activities and how simple things like opening a window minimize transmission.
Why does it matter to you?
The website is helpful in visually explaining how quickly the coronavirus can spread in a certain area. By toggling the factors like occupancy, ventilation and room size, you can see how just one infected person dangers the area.
In an office with 220 square feet, the chances of infection are about 1% after an hour. This assumes that there is adequate ventilation, and the infected person is wearing an N95 mask.
Changing the infectious person to wearing no mask increases the chances of infection ten-fold to over 10% after an hour’s exposure.
What can you do about it?
If you are still in doubt about how infectious the virus is or how easy it is to contract, the website will provide you with some helpful information.
There is a word of caution when using the website to simulate possible transmission. The site’s algorithm only predicts infection from SARS-CoV-2 aerosol droplets. It can’t tell you the chances of getting infected from touching surfaces or being close to an infected person.
For that reason, authorities across the world have been stressing the importance of washing hands, social distancing and wearing face masks.
Bottom line
It can be difficult to come to grips with a global pandemic. While there have been signs of it slowing down in some parts of the world, the U.S is still struggling to contain it effectively.
Reading articles about infection rates can be helpful, but it hasn’t been visually explained often. This website aims to give some form of interpretation to all the data out there.
The main point to remember is that we still need to wear masks to protect our loved ones.
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Tags: calculator, COVID-19, Google, Johns Hopkins University, pandemic
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