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Review
. 2023 Feb 26;21(1):11-20.
doi: 10.1007/s40201-023-00847-0. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Implemented indoor airborne transmission mitigation strategies during COVID-19: a systematic review

Reza Saeedi  1   2 , Ehsan Ahmadi  3 , Mohammad Sadegh Hassanvand  4   5 , Mehrnoosh Abtahi Mohasel  1   6 , Samira Yousefzadeh  3 , Mohammad Safari  1
Affiliations
Review

Implemented indoor airborne transmission mitigation strategies during COVID-19: a systematic review

Reza Saeedi et al. J Environ Health Sci Eng. .

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted major economic and health burdens across the world. On the other hand, the potential airborne transmission of SARS-COV-2 via air can deeply undermine the effectiveness of countermeasures against spreading the disease. Therefore, there is an intense focus to look for ways to mitigate the COVID-19 spread within various indoor settings. This work systematically reviewed articles regarding airborne transmission of SARS-COV2 in various indoor settings since the onset of the pandemic. The systematic search was performed in Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed databases and has returned 19 original articles carefully screened with regard to inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results showed that the facilities, such as dormitories and classrooms, received the most attention followed by office buildings, healthcare facilities, residential buildings, and other potential enclosed spaces such as a metro wagon. Besides, the majority of the studies were conducted experimentally while other studies were done using computer simulations. United States (n = 5), Spain (n = 4) and China (n = 3) were the top three countries based on the number of performed research. Ventilation rate was the most influential parameter in controlling the infection spread. CO2 was the primary reference for viral spread in the buildings. The use of natural ventilation or a combination of mechanical and natural ventilations was found to be highly effective in the studies. The current work helps in furthering research on effective interventions to improve indoor air quality and control the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40201-023-00847-0.

Keywords: Airborne transmission; COVID-19; Indoor air quality; SARS-COV-2; Systematic review; Ventilation strategies.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The PRISMA Chart of the process of article selection
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The type and number of buildings in the screened articles
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Number of the screened studies per country
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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