The impact of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) design features on the transmission of viruses, including the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19): A systematic review of humidity

COVID-19 epidemic in Panama

Objective

It is necessary to establish the evolution that the pandemic has had in Panama by weeks and months and to clearly establish the existence of surges or peaks, according to cases and deaths and the relationship with age groups.

Methodology

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all confirmed COVID-19 cases reported by the Ministry of Health of Panama during the first 3 years of the epidemic (March 9, 2020, March 11, 2023). All cases were obtained from information provided by the Ministry of Health. We obtained daily information of the population at the national level reported as new cases, deaths, admission to hospitals, admission to intensive care units and by age groups. The information is classified by epidemiological week and by month from the diagnosis of the first case until March 2023.

Results

During the three years of the study, 1,032,316 cases of COVID-19 were registered in the Republic of Panama, and the number of deaths reported was 8,621, for a fatality rate of 0.83 % throughout that period. The number of deaths decreased over the 3 years of the pandemic; however, similar to the cases, there were periods of surges (peaks) per year in June/July and in December/January. The lethality progressively increased according to the age of the affected patients. During the first year, the lethality in those under 20 years of age was 0.05 %, and in those over 80 years old, it was 17.54 %. This pattern was maintained during the second year; however, there was a large decrease in all age groups.

Conclusion

the highest lethality rate in Panama occurred in the first year of the pandemic, with a great decrease in the third year; the impact of lethality is proportional to the age of the individual, with a high possibility of death in those over 80 years of age. During each pandemic year, there are two peaks (surges of new cases and deaths) per year, which are important times to take into account to generate strategies aimed at reducing the impact.

Ventilation Improvements Among K-12 Public School Districts - United States, August-December 2022

Improving ventilation has been one of several COVID-19 prevention strategies implemented by kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) schools to stay open for safe in-person learning. Because transmission of SARS-CoV-2 occurs through inhalation of infectious viral particles, it is important to reduce the concentration of and exposure time to infectious aerosols (1-3). CDC examined reported ventilation improvement strategies among U.S. K-12 public school districts using telephone survey data collected during August-December 2022. Maintaining continuous airflow through school buildings during active hours was the most frequently reported strategy by school districts (50.7%); 33.9% of school districts reported replacement or upgrade of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; 28.0% reported installation or use of in-room air cleaners with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters; and 8.2% reported installation of ultraviolet (UV) germicidal irradiation (UVGI) devices, which use UV light to kill airborne pathogens, including bacteria and viruses. School districts in National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) city locales, the West U.S. Census Bureau region, and those designated by U.S. Census Bureau Small Area Income Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) as high-poverty districts reported the highest percentages of HVAC system upgrades and HEPA-filtered in-room air cleaner use, although 28%-60% of all responses were unknown or missing. Federal funding remains available to school districts to support ventilation improvements. Public health departments can encourage K-12 school officials to use available funding to improve ventilation and help reduce transmission of respiratory diseases in K-12 settings.

UVC-Based Air Disinfection Systems for Rapid Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 Present in the Air

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared in May 2021 that SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted not only by close contact with infectious respiratory fluids from infected people or contaminated materials but also indirectly through air. Airborne transmission has serious implications for the control measures we can deploy, given the emergence of more transmissible variants. This emphasizes the need to deploy a mechanism to reduce the viral load in the air, especially in closed and crowded places such as hospitals, public transport buses, etc. In this study, we explored ultraviolet C (UVC) radiation for its ability to inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 particles present in aerosols and designed an air disinfection system to eliminate infectious viruses. We studied the virus inactivation kinetics to identify the UVC dosage required to achieve maximum virus inactivation. Based on the experimental data, UVC-based devices were designed for the sanitization of air through HVAC systems in closed spaces. Further, a risk assessment model to estimate the risk reduction was applied which showed that the use of UVC radiation could result in the reduction of the risk of infection in occupied spaces by up to 90%.