Austin just canceled SXSW. Is it safe to think Nationals will go on as planned. Is it safe to do so. I really want to go to Nationals, but I am 71 and concerned.
After signing up, we purchased airline tickets to the meet. If it is canceled ---- will the greedy airlines not refund our airfare?
Check with your airline. Several of them have already announced changes to their policy.
A lot of the airlines and hotels are seeing massive reservation cancellations. This is actually probably a good time to fly with many fewer people travelling. Plus, the CDC and FAA have added more stringent cleaning requirements for the aircraft.
Everyone needs to make decisions based on their own circumstances.
A lot of the airlines and hotels are seeing massive reservation cancellations. This is actually probably a good time to fly with many fewer people travelling. Plus, the CDC and FAA have added more stringent cleaning requirements for the aircraft.
Good point regarding fewer people flying! While I applaud the more stringent cleaning of the cabin, my bigger concern is the passenger in the same row or behind me who is coughing or sneezing. I can do a no breather, but not for 2 hours!
So here's what I found (in part) on the webpages of the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the Water Environment Federation (WEF), and through a link to a relevant WHO publication. The relationship between pool water and drinking water is obvious; I view wastewater as a more or less "worst case" water environmental condition relevant only in that regard.
With a well maintained pH and free residual chlorine concentration in a pool, the risk from pool water exposure seems very low and/or non-existent, as this type of virus is sensitive to chlorination and UV disinfection and would be killed in seconds. But the risk in a pool without a well maintained free chlorine residual could be significant (I.e., poorly maintained pools in backyards, hotels, hot tubs, etc.).
The risk of exposure at nationals would seem to be from inhalation of droplets while on the pool deck, locker rooms, bathrooms, hotels, restaurants, airplanes etc. from close contact with someone coughing or sneezing or from contact with a contaminated surface in these close contact locations.
My $0.02
Below is a copy of relevant text:
Water Environment Federation
The Water Professional’s Guide to COVID-19 (in part) (2/11/2020)
How is COVID-19 transmitted, and how contagious is it?
While many questions remain regarding transmission of COVID-19, most often Coronaviruses spread from person-to-person during close contact — about 2 m (6 ft). Person-to-person spread is thought to mainly occur via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how influenza and other respiratory pathogens spread. These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs. Close contact generally does not include brief interactions, such as walking past a person.
With most respiratory viruses, people are thought to be most contagious when they show symptoms of infection. However, some viruses can be contagious prior to symptoms development, and the COVID-19 has been reported to have spread from an asymptomatic infected patient to a close contact.
The rate at which a person can get COVID-19 by touching a contaminated surface or object (i.e., fomites) and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes is unclear. We also do not know if viral particles can be aerosolized from water or suspended into air after settling and remain infective. While such routes can occur for other coronaviruses, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control states that there is currently no evidence to support airborne transmission of the novel Coronavirus. A precautionary approach should be taken until studies eliminate other routes of transmission. Epidemiological studies also suggest that transmission rates of COVID-19 currently might be higher than those of SARS and MERS. Scientists have estimated that each person with the new Coronavirus could infect somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 people without effective containment measures, according to “Early Transmissibility Assessment of a Novel Coronavirus in Wuhan, China,” in the Elsevier SSRN (Social Science Research Network).
Is COVID-19 present in wastewater?
Recent information suggests that COVID-19 may be transmitted through the fecal-oral route. The virus RNA was detected in patient stool after scientists noticed that some patients infected with the COVID-19 virus experienced diarrhea in the early stages of infection instead of a fever, the latter being more common. A recent paper, “First Case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the United States,” in the New England Journal of Medicine also confirmed the virus RNA detection in ***. OSHA recommends that workers handle solid waste contaminated with COVID-19 as they would other regulated Category B medical waste, corresponding with the recommendations of other organizations. If the recovery of infectious particles from *** or wastewater at potentially infective doses is confirmed at a future date, this recommendation may have to be revised.
Detection of viruses by molecular techniques provides no indication that the virus is infectious. It remains to be seen if infectious virus particles are excreted in patients' *** and urine, and if so, how well the viruses are able to survive in wastewater.
Previous studies investigating persistence of coronavirus surrogates and SARS in wastewater highlight that in the absence of disinfection, the virus can survive in wastewater from hours to days. In 2003, research on SARS had suggested that sewage was implicated in the infection of a cluster of cases in the Amoy Gardens apartment block in Hong Kong. A recent report indicated possible COVID-19 transmission through sewage pipes in a building in Hong Kong, but this remains to be confirmed.
However, previous work also highlights that SARS can readily be disinfected when chlorine dosing produces a free chlorine residual between 0.2 and 0.5 mg/L for municipal wastewater. While Ebola virus is different, it is reassuring that the article, “Persistence of Ebola Virus in Sterilized Wastewater,” similarly showed that no virus was recovered at doses of 5 and 10 mg/L of chlorine and a 3.5 log reduction was achieved in the presence of free chlorine residual of 0.16 mg/L for 20 seconds. These results imply that standard municipal wastewater system disinfection and hyper (or shock) chlorination practices may be sufficient to control the virus provided utilities monitor free available chlorine during treatment to ensure it has not been depleted.
World Health Organization
Water, sanitation, hygiene and waste management for COVID-19 (in part)
Technical Brief
03 March 2020
1.3 Keeping water supplies safe
The presence of the COVID-19 virus has not been detected in drinking-water supplies and based on current evidence the risk to water supplies is low13. While laboratory studies of surrogate coronaviruses taking place in well controlled environments indicate that the virus can remain infectious in fecally contaminated water for days to weeks14. A number of measures can be taken to improve water safety starting with source water protection, treatment of water (at point of distribution, collection, or consumption), and safe storage of treated water in regularly cleaned and covered containers at home. Furthermore, conventional, centralized water treatment methods which utilize filtration and disinfection should inactivate COVID-19 virus. Other human coronaviruses have been shown to be sensitive to chlorination and UV disinfection15. As enveloped viruses are surrounded by a lipid host cell membrane, which is not very robust, COVID-19 virus is likely to be more sensitive to chlorine and other oxidant disinfection processes than many other viruses such as coxsackieviruses, which have a protein coat. For effective centralized disinfection, there should be a residual concentration of free chlorine of ≥ 0.5 mg/l after at least 30 min contact time at pH
well in the case of this and other recent Coronaviruses, chlorine in even small amounts in water has been proven effective at killing the virus. So I think the survival time for this virus in a pool with standard chlorine levels is very short.
Is the same true for pools converted to salt water? Is there enough chlorine in those pools?
