Sir,
I read with interest the recent paper by Peters and coworkers [1]. There is a feature of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) not mentioned here but especially relevant to infection prevention and control. At an early stage in the pandemic, and confirmed by several studies since, the virus was found in extremely high concentrations in the upper respiratory tract [[2], [3], [4]]. Whereas the consensus, at present, is that it does not spread by fine droplets, this finding does support the idea that transmission – especially from pre-symptomatic and early symptomatic subjects – may occur via direct contact with contaminated fomites. Hand hygiene thus becomes an even more important intervention, and we need to be aware that the misuse of masks could increase the spread of this awful infection.
Conflict of interest statement
None declared.
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References
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