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Enforced masking on long flights prevents SARS-CoV-2 transmission

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The Risk of Aircraft-Acquired SARS-CoV-2 Transmission during Commercial Flights: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The aircraft-acquired transmission of SARS-CoV-2 poses a public health risk. Following PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a systematic review and analysis of articles, published prior to vaccines being available, from 24 January 2020 to 20 April 2021 to identify factors important for transmission. Articles were included if they mentioned index cases and identifiable flight duration, and excluded if they discussed non-commercial aircraft, airflow or transmission models, cases without flight data, or that were unable to determine in-flight transmission. From the 15 articles selected for in-depth review, 50 total flights were analyzed by flight duration both as a categorical variable—short (<3 h), medium (3–6 h), or long flights (>6 h)—and as a continuous variable with case counts modeled by negative binomial regression. Compared to short flights without masking, medium and long flights without masking were associated with 4.66-fold increase (95% CI: [1.01, 21.52]; p < 0.0001) and 25.93-fold increase in incidence rates (95% CI: [4.1, 164]; p < 0.0001), respectively; long flights with enforced masking had no transmission reported. A 1 h increase in flight duration was associated with 1.53-fold (95% CI: [1.19, 1.66]; p < 0.001) increase in the incidence rate ratio (IRR) of cases. Masking should be considered for long flights.


Discussion

In this study, we found that the mean ratio of infection is associated with the duration of the flight when masking is unenforced. 

The ratio tends to be larger for longer flights compared to shorter flights. 

In addition, our negative binomial regression showed that flight duration strongly predicts case incidence. We also found that when masking is unenforced, each additional hour of flight duration is associated with 1.53-fold increase in the transmission incidence rate ratio. 

We speculate that short flights may be safer due to a shorter total duration of exposure to aerosol particles. Also, short flights often do not serve meals, so fewer aerosol particles and droplets are expelled. Interestingly, our findings also suggest that aircraft-acquired transmission is not inevitable if masking is strictly enforced. 

On long haul-type flights where enforced masking took place and meals were served, there were no reported aircraft-acquired cases during contact tracing and follow-up. 

Enforced masking may have encouraged passengers to eat as quickly as possible on these long flights. Furthermore, airline staff can actually enforce masking, similar to how staff are able to enforce safety checks such as correct table-up and seat up-and-back positions by walking down the aisles, checking each seat, and correcting behaviors during take-off and landing.


To read more click on this link: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/6/654

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