New Delhi: Flight planners need to be cautious amid a rise in omicron cases across the world as airline passengers are twice or thrice more likely to contract in-flight infections since the new variant emerged. Is. The world’s top medical advisor to airlines.
The new strain has become highly transmissible and took effect in a matter of weeks, accounting for more than 70 percent of all new cases in the US alone.
What chances of Of infection during a flight?
Even hospital-grade air filters on modern passenger jets reduce the risk of infection on planes compared to crowded places like shopping malls, but for year-end vacations and family reunions More people traveling by air may still pose a risk.
David Powell, a physician and medical consultant for the International Air Transport Association (IATA), told Bloomberg that business class may be safer than a more densely packed economy cabin. IATA represents approximately 300 carriers worldwide.
“Whatever the risk was with the delta, we have to assume that the risk would be two to three times higher omicron, as we have seen in other environments. Whichever is the lower risk – we don’t know what it is – on the airplane, it should be increased by the same amount,” he said.
can you reduce risks?
According to Powell, to some extent you can reduce the risk by avoiding common touching surfaces, hand hygiene wherever possible, masks, distancing, controlled-boarding procedures, trying to avoid face-to-face contact with other customers. Do, try to avoid being without a mask in flight for food and drink services, except when really necessary.
Wouldn’t it be safe to fly at all?
The only protection it has to offer is vaccination and promotion. He said the protection you give yourself with an extra mask or a different type of mask, or not flying at all, is probably less than the benefit you’ll get from boosting altogether.
What about leaving the middle seats in the rows empty?
It’s incredibly engaging, intuitive. This provides more physical distance between you and the next person. But we haven’t seen that really much benefit. But if there is some cross airflow from aisle to window, or window to aisle, and you move that person out of the middle seat, you have helped the person who would have been in the middle seat. You probably haven’t helped the person in the front seat very much, as it’s likely to be swept away without that first person’s handicap.
What are the risks of infection at the airport?
Airflow requirements on board are generally much stricter than in airport buildings. Roughly 50 percent of the airflow is fresh outside, 50 percent recirculated, but when it’s recirculated, it’s HEPA-filtered, so it’s clean. Most of them are not present at the airport stage. You’ve got a lot of random motion, a lot of potential for face-to-face contact, you’ve got generally low airflow. Airport ventilation rates could be a 10th of what they are on an airplane.
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