When some states and countries are starting to reopen businesses and lift stay-at-home requirements, we look at some preventive measures as the restrictions seem to ease.
Are we exposed to the coronavirus while swimming in pools and lakes?
Experts say, water shouldn’t be a cause of concern. The CDC mentions that there is no evidence the virus causing COVID-19 can spread through the water in pools, hot tubs, spas and water play areas.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, said that it’s a respiratory virus that spreads through coughs, sneezes and common-tough surfaces. So, if you are at a pool and people who are sick touch common touch surfaces, like the chairs and tables, it can be risky.
Abraar Karan, a physician at Harvard Medical School, says there isn’t any data suggesting that the virus can transmit through viral particles dispersed through a body of water. The point of concern is the contact with other people while swimming. If you are at the pool and have face-to-face contact, without wearing facial protection in the pool - swimming with a cloth mask on your face can be risky - then you can certainly still spread it in a normal respiratory way.
Can the virus get transmitted through mosquitoes?
Adalja says coronavirus doesn’t get picked up by mosquitoes in the blood and is not transmitted from person to person by a mosquito.
Are temperature checks good way to screen for COVID-19?
The raygun-like devices aimed at people’s foreheads are called infrared thermometers. They estimate the body’s internal temperature, and their scans are considered reliable if they are used correctly.
But experts believe that temperature checks aren’t an effective way to identify people with coronavirus.
Karan mentioned about a recent study of 5,700 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in New York City. When patients were assessed at triage only 30.7% of them had fever. Some later developed fever but simply checking temperature when they arrived at hospital would not have flagged them as sick.
Thus, checking someone’s temperature isn’t a foolproof method to identify infectious people, when only 30% people hospitalized with the virus have fever.