A high school student wearing a mask to protect against the coronavirus opens a window in her classroom for ventilation.
The World Health Organization has for the first time acknowledged that COVID-19 might be spread through tiny particles that linger in the air.
It was responding to an open letter from more than 200 scientists who urged the WHO to update its guidance.
The agency has previously blamed the spread of the disease on small droplets expelled from the nose or the mouth of infected patients that fall onto surfaces.
Professor Lidia Morawska from Queensland University of Technology in Australia is the letter's lead author.
[Clip: Morawska]
"If the virus is in the air, because that's where it gets from our mouth or nose, it has to be removed from the air. How doe we remove it from the air? Efficient and effective ventilation. Sometimes it's as simple as opening a window, sometimes it's more complicated in mechanically ventilated buildings. But in any case, ventilation is the principle which we understand, and if we know that this is to be done, we can manage this."
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