Many people are protesting against the obligation to wear a mask outdoors, while experts and authorities justify it in certain cases. What is it really ?
Few cases of contamination outside
Proven cases of Covid-19 contamination outdoors are rare, and mainly concern places where physical distancing is not respected and where people stay for a long time.
In addition, almost all the studies on the cases of contamination relate to interior spaces. In a publication of MedRxiv Concerning 25,000 cases, 6% of cases were linked to outdoor environments: sports, parties or concerts. ” We hardly found any cases in external circumstances of everyday life Says study author Mike Weed of Canterbury Christ Church University.
Viruses dilute in outdoor air, but airborne contamination exists
In general, the risk of transmitting a virus is much lower outdoors than indoors, with viruses rapidly diluting in the atmosphere.
Numerous studies have shown that the potentially contaminated microscopic droplets we release while breathing or speaking (not to mention the ones we expel when sneezing or coughing, which are larger), can land on the face of a person lying nearby and thus be inhaled. However, ” although it is not impossible, there is no evidence that the Covid-19 has been transmitted when people pass each other outside », Say researchers at Canterbury Christ Church University.
Knowledge today is limited as scientists struggle to measure virus concentrations in an external environment. While waiting to master all the parameters, wearing a mask remains a minimally invasive preventive strategy.
