Moving indoors during the cold may not mean an increase in coronavirus – expert

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>The move indoors during colder months may not drive up Covid-19 numbers on its own&comma; an expert has said&period; Instead&comma; a behavioural change with people from different households mixing and possibly not wearing masks could be a potential way for the virus to spread&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads1--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Professor Ben Neuman&comma; chairman of biological sciences at Texas A and M University-Texarkana&comma; and visiting associate professor at the University of Reading&comma; said the winter could potentially have some benefits&period; He told the PA news agency&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The move indoors for the winter may not be likely to drive up Covid-19 numbers on its own&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;A cold winter can bring on its own mini-quarantine&comma; as we stay home to avoid bad weather&comma; and comes with a bit of natural PPE in the form of scarves and gloves&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Instead&comma; look for changes in behaviour that lead to mixing of people from different households&comma; especially where masks would not be worn&comma; as a potential source of Covid-19 – school reopenings&comma; dinner parties&comma; restaurants&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Anything you do to mitigate Covid-19 as an individual PPE intervention may well be the only thing you can do&comma; because increasing ventilation &&num;8211&semi; opening windows &&num;8211&semi; will work in some situations<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>He added that some analysis leans too heavily on the influenza virus – which peaks in winter&comma; but that most viruses are not as strictly seasonal as the flu&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some normally peak in spring&comma; including most coronaviruses&comma; and others peak in summer or autumn&comma; like poliovirus&period; He added that after the coming flu season there will be a lot more data and that any conclusions at this stage would be speculative&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; Prof Neuman highlighted that the similarity of symptoms between Covid-19 and flu could result in an increase of negative coronavirus tests&comma; giving the wrong impression that the virus was decreasing&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;A possible side-effect of flu and Covid-19 season is that since both diseases start off with similar symptoms&comma; more people will be ill enough to seek Covid-19 testing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Paradoxically&comma; an influx of people with the flu seeking Covid-19 tests could potentially drive down the percentage of positive tests&comma; which would then misleadingly suggest that Covid-19 was decreasing&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;That is one reason why per cent positive rates should not be taken in isolation to monitor the pandemic&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads2--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Dr Julian Tang&comma; honorary associate professor in respiratory sciences at the University of Leicester&comma; said ventilation would play an important role in the spread of the disease and people needed to continue wearing masks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He told PA&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Anything you do to mitigate Covid-19 as an individual PPE intervention may well be the only thing you can do&comma; because increasing ventilation – opening windows – will work in some situations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;But a lot of indoor areas&comma; indoor buildings&comma; cannot ramp up ventilation very well with existing systems&comma; and some of the windows are not openable&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said that he is part of a network of experts that indicate it may be necessary to open windows&comma; with the heating on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speaking about classrooms&comma; Dr Tang said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;What they suggest is that you have to turn on the heating with the windows open&comma; which is a terrible waste of energy&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;But what that does is it creates convective flows that may actually enhance the ventilation in those classrooms&period;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;But again&comma; if you’re wearing masks&comma; to some extent this will be helpful&comma; but you have to remove the airborne virus that may be expelled over the hours to actually make those masks work&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads3--><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ec9a1e728ee">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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