WHO indicates indoor airborne coronavirus spread could potentially occur

The World Health Organization indicated Thursday in a scientific brief that indoor airborne transmission of COVID-19 may be possible.

The brief noted that the virus could be transmit in as people packed inside areas with poor ventilation for significant period of time.

"Outside of medical facilities, some outbreak reports related to indoor crowded spaces have suggested the possibility of aerosol transmission, combined with droplet transmission, for example, during choir practice, in restaurants or in fitness classes," the WHO noted in the brief. "In these events, short-range aerosol transmission, particularly in specific indoor locations, such as crowded and inadequately ventilated spaces over a prolonged period of time with infected persons cannot be ruled out," the organization noted.

But the WHO also suggested that transmission through droplets and contaminated surfaces could have actually been the cause of transmission.

"However, the detailed investigations of these clusters suggest that droplet and fomite transmission could also explain human-to-human transmission within these clusters. Further, the close contact environments of these clusters may have facilitated transmission from a small number of cases to many other people (e.g., superspreading event), especially if hand hygiene was not performed and masks were not used when physical distancing was not maintained."

The Trump administration, which has frequently criticized the World Health Organization amid the coronavirus pandemic, took action this week toward withdrawing the U.S. from the group.  

According to Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 3 million coronavirus cases in the U.S. and more than 132,000 deaths. 

While many areas of the country have experienced a spike in case numbers, the death rate has also declined.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday said that "it's a false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death. There's so many other things that are very dangerous and bad about this virus, don't get yourself into false complacency."