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Scary information revealed regarding rapid Covid spread in buses in Chennai!!
Posted on: 29/Mar/2023 9:17:03 AM
Now, there is an increase in the number of Coronavirus cases. In this scenario, a study conducted by the researchers from Chennai based Anna University or AU and Puducherry based ICMR Vector Control Research Centre have revealed that up to 9 passengers could get infected by Coronavirus when travelling in a half filled city bus when there is one Covid positive passenger inside the bus.
They have added that the number of cases would increase when there are more infected persons or when the buses are overcrowded or when the passengers travel long distances in the buses.
The study has been published recently in the peer reviewed scientific journal VirusDisease( formerly known as Indian journal of Virology). Information gathered is that the researchers used 21G Tambaram to Broadway route bus to simulate the Covid-19 infection scenario.
It must be taken into account that the researchers assumed that 5 passengers would leave or board the 21 G bus at each of the 40 stops along the 36.1km route. They added that there would be 20 passengers inside the bus all the time. The assumption was made by the researchers that atleast one passenger was infected by Covid initially. This was according to an assistant professor of instrumentation at AU, Ganesh Ram Arumugam, who was also the first author of this study.
The infected persons could enter and exit the bus at subsequent bus stops randomly and this was as per the mathematical model. The major objective behind the study was to estimate the number of secondary infections on one of the longest bus routes during the Coronavirus pandemic.Factors like travel duration, time at each bus stop plus total infection, total passenger numbers and breathinG space volume inside the bus were taken into account for the reproductive number or RO. This is an epidemiological metric used to calculate the transmissibility of the infectious agents.
It was mentioned by co-author Kamalanand Krishnamurthy,assistant professor of instrumentation engg in AU that RO reaches 104 at the end of the journey. For each trip from Tambaram to Broadway, the number of secondary infections would vary from 5 to 9 based on the number of passengers.
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