Coranavirus: Hospitals A Threat to Everyone

update

*We keep testing for a horrendous coronavirus outbreak at hospitals. This guy was running around in two hospitals: Connecticut confirms hospital worker has coronavirus

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) on Friday said a hospital employee had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the first confirmed case in the state — though the patient does not live there.

The employee, who worked at the Danbury and Norwalk hospitals, is a resident of New York state, Lamont said in a tweet. The governor said he was meeting with health officials in Danbury.

*The World Health Organization says we don't know yet how heat and humidity affect the virus. “There is currently no data available on stability of 2019-nCoV on surfaces,” it says in its guidance on preventing infections.

***I guess US hospital have areas with closed air ventilations systems and HEPA filters to prevent the spread of pathogens. But the rest of the hospital would not have these systems. Why wouldn't the heating ventilation system have the same problem? So much for the idea the coronavirus doesn't become aerosolized. Most of the building ventilation system's heating and air-conditioning systems share the same duct work. Would the elevated heating ducts temperatures kill the coronavirus?

The scenario I worry about is there will be a car accident. The driver just caught the virus. In the early stage of the infection, a lab test would not pick up the infection. The accident injured him enough so he would be in  hospital for weeks. He would be shedding the virus till he got a elevated temperature gaining the nurses attention. We don't know at what point the hospital takes a coronavirus test. There, the hospital's ventilation system is contaminated with coronavirus and it spreading wildly through the hospital.   

 
Coronavirus could be spread by air-conditioning and may be more contagious than previously thought, scientists believe after finding traces of the virus in hospital air-duct

• The rooms of three coronavirus patients were tested in a Singapore hospital   
• The room of a 'mild' infectee had trace amounts of the virus in an air vent
• Concerns have been raised in recent weeks of the spread of the deadly coronavirus through air-conditioning units after many became ill on cruise shi

Traces of the coronavirus found in a hospital air duct has led scientists to believe the disease could be spread through air-conditioning units, making it more contagious than initially thought. 

Swab analysis of rooms used by three coronavirus patients by experts at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases in Singapore suggest that the respiratory illness spreads easier than previously thought. 

An air duct connected to the room of one of the patients, thought to be only suffering from 'mild' symptoms', was found with traces of the virus, suggesting 'suggests small, virus-laden droplets may be displaced by airflows and deposited on equipment such as vents'.

The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, comes shortly after it was reported that 142 Britons were reported trapped on a Princess Cruise ship anchored for patients to undergo testing, off the coast of California yesterday. 

Health authorities have had a suspicious eye on cruise ships in recent weeks ever since a number of voyages were disrupted by virus scares.

In the most serious case, 705 people tested positive for the virus on board the Diamond Princess during a two-week lockdown in Japan.  

Japanese authorities said last week that a British tourist who had been on board the Diamond Princess had died after contracting coronavirus.

On Thursday, a patient with underlying health conditions became the first person in the UK to die after also testing positive for the virus.   

It is standard practice for buildings and cruise ships to use recycled air through air-conditioning systems. 

Professor James G. Dwyer, from Purdue University in Indiana, told the Telegraph: 'The problem is that these systems can't filter out particles smaller than 5,000 nanometers.'

The size of the coronavirus is not yet known, but a similar respiratory illness, Sars, was recorded at just 120 nanometres. 

Professor Dwyer said that if the current COVID-19 is a similar size, 'the air conditioning system would be carrying the virus to every cabin.  

'Cruise ships could minimise this problem by just using outside air and not recirculating it,' he added.       

Airlines have already sought to reassure passengers that their air-conditioning systems are fit to prevent the coronavirus spreading in the cabin, with Etihad suggesting their system is as watertight as a hospital operating theatre.      

'In any confined area, there is a risk of contracting illnesses from other people,' an airline statement reads. 

'However, the risk is considered lower on aircraft because of the use of high efficiency particulate air filters, which are effective in capturing more than 99 per cent of airborne microbes in filtered air.'