06-04-2021 – EVENTS CORONA RESEARCH – Large-scale study in Ireland: of more than 230,000 corona infections, ‘only’ 1 in 1000 was found to take place outdoors. This is the conclusion of the Irish Times after it asked the Irish health service HPSC where the infections took place. The article immediately received a critical note from the scientific corner.
In the article Outdoor transmission accounts for 0.1% of State’s Covid-19 cases van de Irish Times a clear conclusion is drawn: only 262 of 232,000 cases in Ireland could be traced to outdoor activities. According to the figures, 124 cases could be traced back to outdoor workplaces and 131 to outdoor sports and outdoor fitness.
Also Irish BreakingNews.ie gave the floor to Professor Liam Fanning:
University College Cork’s Professor Liam Fanning said he had been surprised by the data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) showing that 0.1 per cent of the State’s total confirmed cases had been linked to outdoor transmission. Prof Fanning told Newstalk Breakfast that while there was an obvious difference between indoor and outdoor transmission, he thought there could be a slight bias in the data and that the figures were on the lower limit. He warned that face-to-face outdoor meetings still carried a risk, as “face-on chatting” meant that if a person was infectious they could still spread the virus.
Source: Breakingnews.ie
Even though the article was criticized, the result is in line with the low number of infections that a Chinese study was able to trace back to the outside environment: in China, 3 of 1,245 examined infections could be traced to an outdoor infection.
Maurice de Hond drew the same conclusion months ago in an extensive interview with EventBranche.nl:
‘For the event industry, the opposite of what is currently being announced is actually the case: the outdoor events can start first. They can continue as usual, of course you have to be careful with singing or shouting close to each other, or going to the toilet, but it can continue as usual. It will only be careful and a real problem when aerosols * can take their course. These small micro-droplets do not descend quickly, certainly not within 1.5 meters, but they whirl through the air. Especially in poorly ventilated areas. That is why the risk of spreading with these micro-droplets is lowest in locations with a high ceiling and with air extraction in the ceiling. Provide extraction, drafts, ventilation. Try to imitate the outside situation. ‘
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