The Impact of COVID-19 Management Policies Tailored to Airborne SARS-CoV-2 Transmission: Policy Analysis.
BACKGROUND
Daily new COVID-19 cases from January to April 2020 demonstrate varying patterns of SARS-CoV-2 transmission across different geographical regions. Constant infection rates were observed in some countries, whereas China and South Korea had a very low number of daily new cases. In fact, China and South Korea successfully and quickly flattened their COVID-19 curve. To understand why this was the case, this paper investigated possible aerosol-forming patterns in the atmosphere and their relationship to the policy measures adopted by select countries.


OBJECTIVE
The main research objective was to compare the outcomes of policies adopted by countries between January and April 2020. Policies included physical distancing measures that in some cases were associated with mask use and city disinfection. We investigated whether the type of social distancing framework adopted by some countries (ie, without mask use and city disinfection) led to the continual dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 (daily new cases) in the community during the study period.


METHODS
We examined the policies used as a preventive framework for virus community transmission in some countries and compared them to the policies adopted by China and South Korea. Countries that used a policy of social distancing by 1-2 m were divided into two groups. The first group consisted of countries that implemented social distancing (1-2 m) only, and the second comprised China and South Korea, which implemented distancing with additional transmission/isolation measures using masks and city disinfection. Global daily case maps from Johns Hopkins University were used to provide time-series data for the analysis.


RESULTS
The results showed that virus transmission was reduced due to policies affecting SARS-CoV-2 propagation over time. Remarkably, China and South Korea obtained substantially better results than other countries at the beginning of the epidemic due to their adoption of social distancing (1-2 m) with the additional use of masks and sanitization (city disinfection). These measures proved to be effective due to the atmosphere carrier potential of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings confirm that social distancing by 1-2 m with mask use and city disinfection yields positive outcomes. These strategies should be incorporated into prevention and control policies and be adopted both globally and by individuals as a method to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
['Telles|Charles Roberto|CR|0000-0001-9624-2423', 'Roy|Archisman|A|0000-0002-4515-7365', 'Ajmal|Mohammad Rehan|MR|0000-0002-2480-9379', 'Mustafa|Syed Khalid|SK|0000-0002-1157-9447', 'Ahmad|Mohammad Ayaz|MA|0000-0002-5731-5439', 'de la Serna|Juan Moises|JM|0000-0002-8401-8018', 'Frigo|Elisandro Pires|EP|0000-0003-0504-5489', 'Rosales|Manuel Hernández|MH|0000-0002-2905-7444']
D000391:Air Microbiology D000086382:COVID-19 D002681:China D002947:Cities D004203:Disinfection D014943:Global Health D006801:Humans D008397:Masks D000085762:Physical Distancing D057766:Policy D011050:Policy Making D056910:Republic of Korea D000086402:SARS-CoV-2
COVID-19 airborne transmission convergence and stability properties social distancing policies