Aerosol Transmission Estimator
The nice people over at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder have produced a very interesting and useful tool for estimating the aerosol spread of COVID-19. The tool allows for a large number of variables to be taken into consideration, including UV light, distancing, room size, mask-wearing, ventilation and/or HEPA filtration and more! They also provide an extremely helpful (even necessary) ReadMe document on how to use the tool and cite data sources for their reasoning behind different parts of how it calculates risk.
The Spanish newspaper El Pais wrote an article using different scenarios and calculated the risk of each one using the Aerosol Transmission Estimator, and you can see their results here. While we can not confirm the results or accuracy of the estimator, it does appear to be based on legitimate science and could be a useful tool in estimating the risks in your daily life activities. It might prove more useful for business owners or teachers, however.
The Aerosol Transmission Estimator itself is a GoogleDoc Spreadsheet, which you need to copy or download before you can edit. The file itself can be found here. Please note: this tool is extremely complicated, and not immediately intuitive or user-friendly for most people. Please look at the initial tab for the ReadMe details before attempting to make adjustments.
16 BC Firefighters Infected Fighting US Fires
Several BC firefighters have tested positive for COVID-19 while in the USA fighting fires in California and Oregon. The Canadian firefighters were kept separate from their US counterparts, with separate camps, showers, meals, etc. Unfortunately, during their time in California, 3 tested positive, and 13 others have become symptomatic since returning to BC. The non-symptomatic firefighters have been asked to extend their quarantine a few extra days (beyond the normal 14 days) just in case.
Surrey Needs to Get Serious About COVID-19
The Surrey Board of Trade along with the South Asian Business Association of B.C are joining forces to launch a campaign with the message “Surrey must get serious about COVID-19 to avoid business closures”.
BC is currently going through a new surge of COVID-19 cases, and it has been officially confirmed by our Chief Health Officer to be a second wave of the virus. But in all of BC, 75% of our active cases are located in the Fraser Health Authority area (1764 out of 2344). And looking at it even closer, in the last 2 weeks (Oct 16-29) 50% of all new cases have been located in the Fraser South area:
The new campaign is imploring the people of Surrey to be personally responsible for following COVID-19 precautions at work and at home. “I think in the future if things do not improve, the provincial health officer is going to have to have a much more strict regional focus in terms of countering the increase in virus cases,” Anita Huberman, CEO of the SBoT, says.
In the past, Dr. Bonnie Henry has been reluctant to institute region-specific public health orders, but with cases being weighted so heavily in a single area, if things do not improve she may reconsider that position.
Fraser Health Authority: Not Even 6
On Monday Dr. Bonnie Henry put a new health order in place saying that private gatherings in homes could be no more than the people who live there, plus their safe 6 friends. But the Fraser Health Authority has asked that for the time being people limit their homes to just the people that live there, and not inviting anyone else. Dr. Victoria Lee, the president and CEO of the Fraser Health Authority joined Dr. Bonnie Henry and Minister Adrian Dix in their news conference today to go over this request, and explain that this did not mean an occasional family visitor couldn’t come by for coffee, or similar. The important part is doing our best to greatly limit our exposure opportunities as best we can.
That’s all for now, stay safe everyone!
BC COVID-19 Info 