US study: Omicron positives emit five times more virus
US study on Omicron positivity: ‘Sars-CoV-2 could produce even more infectious variants’
People positive for the Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants emit more virus (more viral RNA) during exhalation than people infected with earlier variants, such as Wuhan in 2020.
In particular, Omicron variant positives emit five times more virus
This was revealed in a study co-ordinated by Kristen Coleman, a researcher in emerging infectious diseases at the University of Maryland at College Parke (South Carolina, US), and published on the scientific website medRxiv on 29 July.
OMICRON, US RESEARCH ON COVID VARIANTS
The investigation looked at 93 people between mid-2020 and early 2022 infected with Sars-CoV-2.
The infected subjects sang and screamed – with inevitable coughing and sneezing – in front of a cone-shaped apparatus for 30 minutes, while an attached machine collected the particles they exhaled.
The device, called Gesundheit-II, separated fine ‘aerosol’ droplets measuring 5 micrometres or less in diameter, which can remain in the air and escape through tissues and surgical masks.
“The study suggests that Sars-CoV-2 could produce variants that transmit even more virus,” the researchers conclude, “with new variants more prone to superdiffusion.
This is something to be concerned about’.
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