The right climate and humidity levels con help limit the transmission of viruses, and plays an important role in protecting what matters most – our collective health and well-being.
Understanding the challenge
As the COVID-19 virus, otherwise known as the coronavirus, continues to spread all over the world, it’s important for us oil to understand what we can do to limit transmission, and take action and responsibility where we can.
COVID-19 is genetically similar to SARS-CoV, a virus which spread in a similar fashion during 2002/2003. As a result of this previous pandemic, many scientific studies were carried out where the results will likely be relevant in relation to COVID-19. One study highlighted the effects of air temperature and Relative Humidity (RH) on the virus, and how this impacts its ability to survive on surfaces.
What the study says
The study used two coronaviruses along with stainless steel surfaces to examine how the climate affects the virus. The rote of virus inactivation varied across different RH levels, where the greatest level of virus inactivation took place at 50% RH.
The virus had higher survival rates at both 20% and 80% RH, so it’s not simply a case of
increasing or decreasing the levels; it’s about controlling the climate to very specific parameters.
Find out more about how effective humidity control can limit viral transmission rates.