<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The year 2020 has been marked by the novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic on the 11<sup>th</sup> of March 2020 due to the spread of this very contagious virus throughout the world. Since the outbreak, we have gained many insights about the virus, its presence and persistence in the environment and its possible and most common transmission routes. Such knowledge about the virus is invaluable for establishing effective preventive and control measures (also referred to as Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs)) that have become a key to tackling this pandemic in the absence of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. In this review, we discuss five main groups of NPIs: 1) ventilation, 2) cleaning and disinfection, 3) hand hygiene, 4) physical distancing, and 5) protective masks. We explore their shortcomings and potential negative consequences that might occur as unwanted side effects.</p></abstract>

The year 2020 has been marked by the novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic on the 11th of March 2020 due to the spread of this very contagious virus throughout the world. Since the outbreak, we have gained many insights about the virus, its presence and persistence in the environment and its possible and most common transmission routes. Such knowledge about the virus is invaluable for establishing effective preventive and control measures (also referred to as Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs)) that have become a key to tackling this pandemic in the absence of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. In this review, we discuss five main groups of NPIs: 1) ventilation, 2) cleaning and disinfection, 3) hand hygiene, 4) physical distancing, and 5) protective masks. We explore their shortcomings and potential negative consequences that might occur as unwanted side effects.

SARS-CoV-2: A critical review of preventive and control measures in the context of the virus’ characteristics

Master student of Sanitary Engineering at University of Ljubljana

Sanitarno inženirstvo International Journal of Sanitary Engineering Research

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The year 2020 has been marked by the novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease COVID-19. The...

SARS-CoV-2: A critical review of preventive and control measures in the context of the virus’ characteristics

Publicado en línea: 27 abr 2021

Páginas: 17 - 39

Recibido: 01 dic 2020

Aceptado: 14 dic 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijser-2020-0003

Palabras clave
SARS-CoV-2, transmission routes, presence, persistence, preventive measures, NPIs

© 2020 Manca Alič et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

SARS-CoV-2: A critical review of preventive and control measures in the context of the virus’ characteristics

Publicado en línea: 27 abr 2021

Páginas: 17 - 39

Recibido: 01 dic 2020

Aceptado: 14 dic 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijser-2020-0003

Palabras claveSARS-CoV-2, transmission routes, presence, persistence, preventive measures, NPIs

© 2020 Manca Alič et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Palabras clave
SARS-CoV-2, transmission routes, presence, persistence, preventive measures, NPIs