Please check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the most updated recommendations. She has written about COVID-19 for many publications, including The New York Times, Kaiser Health News, Medscape and The Washington Post. Two jurisdictions attempted to contact all households on their line lists, and two jurisdictions attempted to contact households on their line lists based on specimen collection date. Jurisdictions identified persons who were considered potentially eligible for participation through obtaining laboratory line lists of persons who had sequence-confirmed Omicron (B.1.1.529 lineage and its sublineages) or whose sequencing results were pending. "Being outdoors in the outside air absolutely protects us from less transmissible viruses," Sharon Nachman, MD, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children's Hospital, told Health. Again, Id urge that if you are wearing a mask, wear an N95 or equivalent mask, because it will be your best chance of protecting against the very contagious BA.2 variant. You could decide to go to an outdoor lunch with your colleagues, but skip the happy hour in a packed bar. This German snowman wears a protective mask over its banana nose and mouth, but experts say the risk of catching COVID outdoors is slim. Higher outdoor wind speeds on warmer days were associated with up to a 45% lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in social gatherings. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Serial intervals and household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, South Korea, 2021. And, while outdoor gatherings are still considered safer, there are some cases in. It's also not clear exactly how much virus is needed for a productive SARS-CoV-2 infection, Banerjay said, with more research needed. No. Still, he says, you have to be close to the infected person or downwind of them. Some will think those activities are worth the risk. These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. All HTML versions of MMWR articles are generated from final proofs through an automated process. If you're immunocompromised yourself, Lighter adds, wear a face mask indoors or in a particularly . Wen: You need to decide whats best for you, with the understanding that one-way masking with an N95 or equivalent works very well that is, even if others around you arent masking, you are still well-protected if you wear a well-fitting, high-quality mask at all times. Delta had a slightly higher reproductive rate of around 5.1. Its a nasty stomach bugand cases have been rising since August. Contact her at: lauren.pelley@cbc.ca. "That doesn't mean [transmission is] impossible if you're packed together in a place that's only sort of open air and if people are sharing food or kissing or drinking. But Omicron was a game changer, in more ways than one. Greater COVID transmissibility due to Omicron variants means greater transmissibility in any setting, indoors or outdoorseven if outside is still safer, experts say. So called stealth Omicron, nicknamed for its ability to evade detection on PCR tests, was about 1.4 times more transmissible than BA.1, so its reproductive rate was around 13.3, Adrian Esterman, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of South Australia, recently wrote on academic news website The Conversation. Masking in those environments, distancing, and vaccination are still effective preventative tools for us to utilize, Dr. Rohde says. What exactly does a small group mean? 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. US Travel Association. The new year arrived with an omicron-fueled surge in COVID cases in Alameda County, causing widespread concern and resulting in a number of event cancellations and temporary business closures that recall the pandemic's earlier days.. These are all reasonable decisions depending on how you think about your own risk. "Being outdoors continues to provide another layer of protection because of the ventilation," Weatherhead explains. Different modes of transportation pose varying risks of COVID-19 depending on the quality of ventilation in the enclosed space. Interferon lambda, an injectable drug in development, is already being compared to Paxlovid. ", Lauren Pelley covers health and medical science for CBC News, including the global spread of infectious diseases, Canadian health policy, and pandemic preparedness. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School. However, if you live in a cold locale as she does, you may want to leave your mask on for warmth. What This Means For You. Use of trade names and commercial sources is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice| Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information| Ad Choices Among 431 household contacts, 227 were classified as having a case of COVID-19 (attack rate [AR]=52.7%). The ARs among household contacts of index patients who had received a COVID-19 booster dose, of fully vaccinated index patients who completed their COVID-19 primary series within the previous 5 months, and of unvaccinated index patients were 42.7% (47 of 110), 43.6% (17 of 39), and 63.9% (69 of 108), respectively. BOSTON -- As Omicron cases are sweeping the nation, some experts are warning that being outdoors may not provide as much protection as before. Wind is typically good because it will lead to more rapid dilution [of particles], but you should pay attention to wind direction and avoid being close and directly downwind of others, Dr. Marr says. Views equals page views plus PDF downloads. It's also important to say that outdoor gatherings were never completely risk-freethey were just less risky. part 46.102(l)(2), 21 C.F.R. Sunlight and humidity, for instance, can both contribute to how long viruses are able to survive on surfaces outdoors, he noted. Department of Health and Human Services. Slightly less transmissible were the 1918 pandemic strain of flu, which had an estimated R0 of 2, as does Ebola. Getty The new BA.5 subvariant is spreading across the US and there's evidence it can evade the body's immune response. Omicron started off as three subvariants (that is, a group of viruses from the same parent virus) all appearing in late November 2021 in South Africa: BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3. Fully vaccinated was defined as completion of the primary vaccination series 2 weeks before the index date and stratified into completion <5 months or 5 months before the index date. CNN: What if you have to go back to the office, and others arent masking? And at this stage of the pandemic, we have to find ways to do things that are meaningful to us. Some persons who were fully vaccinated had unknown dates for completion of their primary vaccination series. Dies geschieht in Ihren Datenschutzeinstellungen. See the Interactive Home Ventilation Tool. Households with high transmission or with more attention to public health measures may have been more likely to participate. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. (Of course, football games have been postponed this season because of COVID outbreaks, but the study's authors believe that players were more likely spreading it in locker rooms and other shared indoor spaces.). Without sequencing results for all household contact cases, it was not possible to confirm that transmission occurred from index patients to household contacts or that household contacts were infected with the same variant. On smooth surfaces, Omicron lasted more than a week, while infectious amounts of the original virus were recovered up to just four days on polypropylene plastic and stainless and up to seven days on glass. If you are attending an outdoor gatheringeven when community levels are medium or lowyou should still be cautious about masking and social distancing, especially in large crowds. In that case, they should definitely feel free to wear a mask when in outdoor and more crowded settings. Some stateslike California and New York . they should expect rapid transmission of COVID-19 that will prevent students . Roberts added that since BA.5 is more transmissible than prior variants indoors, it is likely that its more transmissible outdoors, too. Even past infection or immunization don't offer quite as much protection as would be expected. Fr nhere Informationen zur Nutzung Ihrer Daten lesen Sie bitte unsere Datenschutzerklrung und Cookie-Richtlinie. As statistics show, the highest rate of COVID-19 transmission occurs in indoor settings. After conducting lab-based research, the team found Omicron "is more stable than the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 on different surfaces.". How Omicron spreads so fast is the question of the moment. Among 439 household contacts, cases were identified in 227 (51.7%), including 178 (40.5%) confirmed and 49 (11.2%) probable cases; among the remaining household contacts, 204 (46.5%) were classified as nonCOVID-19 patients and eight (1.8%) as having unknown status. While outdoor transmission of COVID-19 in low-risk settings is "generally uncommon," Dr. Adalja says that it's . Dr. Rohde says nothing has fundamentally changed after omicron, except for peoples general attitudes about the pandemic. How should people weigh which precautions they want to follow? That, combined with the sheer volume of cases, could mean that there could be more cases of outdoor transmission, says Dr. Jill Weatherhead, assistant professor of adult and pediatric infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine. COVID Vaccine Needle Size MattersSo Why Arent We Hearing More About It. Outdoor settings remain safer than indoor gatherings, from a Covid transmission standpoint. 552a; 44 U.S.C. How to Have a Sick Day When You Cant Actually Call Off Work. Yet Omicron, the highly contagious variant known for slipping around some of our best defences, might be surviving longer on everyday objects than its early predecessor raising questions about which basic precautions to prevent surface-based transmission might still be warranted. "If you are young and healthy, then the risk from COVID remains very low, just like before, but that may not be the case for older and chronically ill people," said Dr. Blaivas. Millions of people in China have been forced into lockdown, ordered to stay home to protect themselves from the countrys biggest COVID-19 outbreak in two years. 2023 Cond Nast. Were hearing anecdotal reports of people testing positive who think they got it outdoors, said Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director of Infection Prevention at Yale New Haven Hospital. "That gentle breeze outdoors is generally safer" than indoors, he says. Omicron BA.5 May Increase the Risk of Outdoor TransmissionHere's How to Stay Safe Although being outdoors is overall the safer option, when a virus is more contagious, it's more contagious. "So the safest place you can be [with other people] is still going to be outdoors," she says. 3501 et seq. Requiring face coverings in outdoor school settings is now a local decision. "This might affect the balance of transmission routes favouring more fomite transmission than we saw before," she said. But Marr stressed the study's conditions don't reflect real-world scenarios. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2022;71:341346. Don't they both mean someone without symptoms? And people who are vaccinated likely carry less infectious virus particles than people who are not. When asked about the new Hong Kong results, he said any findings based on the "same old techniques" in a laboratory don't change that, since figuring out transmission is about more than just how viruses survive within controlled settings. Wind speeds of less than 5.5 miles per hour (mph) seemed to . You should wear a mask if its impossible to create distance (ideally a well-fitted one, like a KN95) and take a COVID test before you go out, Patel said. 2023 Cable News Network. SELF does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. These newer subvariants have additional mutations in the spike protein allowing them to evade immunity, so even if you had COVID earlier this year, don't assume you're in the clear from getting it again. If your own risk tolerance is low, certain outdoor situations could call for masking up. To Patel, for small group settings to be safe, people cant be shouting (COVID spreads more when people are singing or yelling), you must be able to maintain some distance from others, and everyone should be following public health measures like hand-washing. It appears that outdoor transmission has become more likely with the newer variants over the past year (i.e., since delta) as they have become more transmissible, but outdoors remains a much lower-risk setting than indoors, Dr. Marr explains. That's a key finding from a new pre-print paper from researchers at the University of Hong Kong's school of public health, which is published online but has not yet been peer-reviewed. Omicron Subvariants Mean Outdoor Covid Risk Is Different Now Media outlets report on the rise of omicron BA.5, and how subvariants like this are leading to new covid surges and have. Theres free communication of the air with the atmosphere, and that really disperses aerosols [that can carry COVID-19], so the risk would be a lot lower, Roberts explained. Please note that CBC does not endorse the opinions expressed in comments. As such, Omicron has a slightly shorter clearance phase, 5.35 days as compared to 6.23 days for Delta, as Omicron has a lower peak viral load. Wen: The risk of outdoor transmission is very low to the point that its virtually nonexistent. After three years, most people know how to do that: vaccines, masks, physical distancing, handwashing and lets not forget ventilation. Updated COVID-19 booster vaccines are here. If you are sick and need to be around others, or are caring for someone who has COVID-19, wear a mask. Cleaning hands at . appreciated. A SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariant, BA.2, became the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the United States. She also suggested making sure guests are vaccinated, have recently tested negative, and are symptom-free. / CBS Boston. BA.5's increased transmission and our diminished immune defenses mean that COVID-19 transmission outdoors has become more likely. The omicron variant of COVID-19 and its 36 spike protein mutations has upended much of what scientists know about the coronavirus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the subvariant is causing approximately 65% of the countrys COVID-19 cases at the time of publication. Of those with known SARS-CoV-2 infection history, eleven (6.1%) of 181 index patients and nine (4.7%) of 192 household contacts with confirmed or probable COVID-19 reported a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. Its 36 spike protein mutations has upended much of What scientists know about the coronavirus who. 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