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MIT Finds Indoor Humidity “Sweet Spot” To Reduce Spread of COVID-19
An MIT study shows that keeping indoor humidity at a sweet spot may reduce the spread of COVID-19.
New research links very dry and very humid indoor environments with worse
Relative humidity is the amount of moisture in the air compared to the total moisture the air can hold at a given temperature before saturating and forming condensation.
In a study published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface on November 16, the MIT team reports that maintaining an indoor relative humidity between 40 and 60 percent is associated with relatively lower rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths, while indoor conditions outside this range are associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes. To put this into perspective, most people are comfortable between 30 and 50 percent relative humidity, and an airplane cabin is at around 20 percent relative humidity.
The findings are based on the team’s analysis of COVID-19 data combined with meteorological measurements from 121 countries, from January 2020 through August 2020. Their study suggests a strong connection between regional outbreaks and indoor relative humidity.
In general, the researchers found that whenever a region experienced a rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths prevaccination, the estimated indoor relative humidity in that region, on average, was either lower than 40 percent or higher than 60 percent regardless of season. Nearly all regions in the study experienced fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths during periods when estimated indoor relative humidity was within a “sweet spot” between 40 and 60 percent.
“There’s potentially a protective effect of this intermediate indoor relative humidity,” suggests lead author Connor Verheyen, a PhD student in medical engineering and medical physics in the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology.
“Indoor ventilation is still critical,” says co-author Lydia Bourouiba, director of the MIT Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory and associate professor in the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, and at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT. “However, we find that maintaining an indoor relative humidity in that sweet spot — of 40 to 60 percent — is associated with reduced COVID-19 cases and deaths.”
Seasonal swing?
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have considered the possibility that the virus’ virulence swings with the seasons. Infections and associated deaths appear to rise in winter and ebb in summer. But studies looking to link the virus’ patterns to seasonal outdoor conditions have yielded mixed results.
Verheyen and Bourouiba examined whether COVID-19 is influenced instead by indoor — rather than outdoor — conditions, and, specifically, relative humidity. After all, they note that most societies spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors, where the majority of viral transmission has been shown to occur. What’s more, indoor conditions can be quite different from outdoor conditions as a result of climate control systems, such as heaters that significantly dry out indoor air.
Could indoor relative humidity have affected the spread and severity of COVID-19 around the world? And could it help explain the differences in health outcomes from region to region?
Tracking humidity
For answers, the team focused on the early period of the pandemic when vaccines were not yet available, reasoning that vaccinated populations would obscure the influence of any other factor such as indoor humidity. They gathered global COVID-19 data, including case counts and reported deaths, from January 2020 to August 2020, and identified countries with at least 50 deaths, indicating at least one outbreak had occurred in those countries.
In all, they focused on 121 countries where COVID-19 outbreaks occurred. For each country, they also tracked the local COVID-19 related policies, such as isolation, quarantine, and testing measures, and their statistical association with COVID-19 outcomes.
For each day that COVID-19 data was available, they used meteorological data to calculate a country’s outdoor relative humidity. They then estimated the average indoor relative humidity, based on outdoor relative humidity and guidelines on temperature ranges for human comfort. For instance, guidelines report that humans are comfortable between 66 to 77 degrees
“We saw more reported COVID-19 deaths on the low and high end of indoor relative humidity, and less in this sweet spot of 40 to 60 percent,” Verheyen says. “This intermediate relative humidity window is associated with a better outcome, meaning fewer deaths and a deceleration of the pandemic.”
“We were very skeptical initially, especially as the COVID-19 data can be noisy and inconsistent,” Bourouiba says. “We thus were very thorough trying to poke holes in our own analysis, using a range of approaches to test the limits and robustness of the findings, including taking into account factors such as government intervention. Despite all our best efforts, we found that even when considering countries with very strong versus very weak COVID-19 mitigation policies, or wildly different outdoor conditions, indoor — rather than outdoor — relative humidity maintains an underlying strong and robust link with COVID-19 outcomes.”
It’s still unclear how indoor relative humidity affects COVID-19 outcomes. The team’s follow-up studies suggest that pathogens may survive longer in respiratory droplets in both very dry and very humid conditions.
“Our ongoing work shows that there are emerging hints of mechanistic links between these factors,” Bourouiba says. “For now, however, we can say that indoor relative humidity emerges in a robust manner as another mitigation lever that organizations and individuals can monitor, adjust, and maintain in the optimal 40 to 60 percent range, in addition to proper ventilation.”
Reference: “Associations between indoor relative humidity and global COVID-19 outcomes” by C. A. Verheyen and L. Bourouiba, 16 November 2022, Journal of The Royal Society Interface.
DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2021.0865
This research was made possible, in part, by an MIT Alumni Class fund, the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation.
LA County mask mandate: Health officials decline to impose universal public indoor rule
LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The Los Angeles County Health Department declined Thursday to impose a universal public indoor mask mandate, citing a “decent decrease” in cases and hospitalizations.
Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer made the announcement during a livestreamed meeting.
“Given the declines in case of hospitalization numbers, we’re hopeful that the admission rate over the next few days remains under 10 new admissions per 100,000 residents and L.A. County is soon officially moved by (the Centers for Disease Control) to the ‘medium’ community level,” Ferrer said. “As I noted last week, any indication that the county would soon be moving to the medium community level would be a good reason to not move forward with universal indoor masking.”
For most of the pandemic, L.A. County has required masks in some indoor spaces, including health care facilities, Metro trains and buses, airports, jails and homeless shelters. The new mandate would have expanded the requirement to all indoor public spaces, including shared offices, manufacturing facilities, warehouses, retail stores, restaurants and bars, theaters and schools.
WATCH | Dr. Barbara Ferrer discusses county’s decision to not reinstate indoor mask mandate
Supervisor Kathryn Barger hailed the decision to hold off on reinstating the rule.
“Unenforceable mandates don’t work,” Barger said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “We must continue to marshal our mandates and resources effectively in the fight against COVID-19.”
Supervisor Janice Hahn had joined her in opposing a mandate, saying she feared imposing such a rule would be “very divisive for L.A. County.”
“I honestly believe there are a significant number of the population who are not willing to accept mask mandates at this point,” Hahn said. “And many of them, the ones that have contacted me, pointed out that we do have more tools now than we had at the beginning of the pandemic.”
The county entered the “high” category two weeks ago when the average daily rate of COVID-related hospital admissions rose above 10 per 100,000 residents. As of July 21, the rate was 11.7 admissions per 100,000 residents.
Earlier this week, as residents awaited the decision, several cities — Beverly Hills, El Segundo, Pasadena and Long Beach — announced they would not enforce an indoor mask mandate if one were implemented.
The El Segundo City Council voted during a special meeting Tuesday night against enforcing a possible mask order.
The Beverly Hills City Council cast a similar vote Monday night. The cities of Long Beach and Pasadena — both of which operate their own health departments separate from the county — announced Tuesday they would not issue mask mandates, even if the county did.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said cases may have slowed, but he would support whatever health officials decide.
“If they say this is something we need to do for a couple weeks to help gets kids in schools, I’ll be supportive of that,” Garcetti told reporters. “But it does look like it may have crested in terms of the number of cases. If that happens with hospitalizations as well, we may not need to go to mandatory masking.”
City News Service contributed to this report.
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Orange County enters COVID-19 ‘high’ transmission level, but no indoor mask mandate expected
SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) — Orange County health experts are once again keeping a close eye on COVID-19 cases as the county moves to “high” community transmission.
“Right now we’re certainly seeing a surge in cases,” said Dr. Matt Zahn, deputy health officer for the Orange County Healthcare Agency.
He said transmission in the community is up due to the highly transmissible omicron subvariants.
“We have such an overlap in terms of our populations from Los Angeles County and us and other surrounding counties,” Zahn said. “It’s fair to say we’re all seeing this increase in cases. We’re all in this together.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 data tracker, Los Angeles County’s COVID-19 community level is now in the “high” category.
Ventura and Orange counties also moved into the “high” level this week based on elevated rates of people being infected with the virus.
San Bernardino and Riverside counties are currently in the “medium” category.
“Whenever we’ve seen an increase like this in the past during the pandemic there usually was an increase in ICU cases and also deaths. We’re not seeing that,” said Jose Arballo, public information officer for the Riverside County Department of Health.
If L.A. County stays at the “high” category for two weeks straight, officials say it would trigger a new indoor mask mandate.
It’s a move residents in some neighboring counties should not expect to see.
“We’ve always followed the state guidelines and mandates,” Arballo said. “I believe we will continue to do so. That’s the instruction we’ve been given.”
“In Orange County, we are not moving toward mandates at this point,” Zahn said.
Right now, health officials said anyone who feels safer wearing a mask should continue to do so especially in public places and indoors, and they encourage folks to get the COVID-19 vaccine or booster if eligible.
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Universal indoor masking may soon return in Los Angeles County as omicron subvariants surge
LOS ANGELES (KABC) — As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, Los Angeles County is getting closer to bringing back an indoor masking mandate.
The county is on the verge of moving into the CDC’s “high” level of community transmission as early as Thursday. Staying two weeks at that level would automatically trigger an indoor masking mandate.
A return of the mandate appears imminent as new omicron subvariants fuel a summer surge.
But how do people feel about it?
Like many residents, Roman Lomtadze says he’s not ready to go back to masking.
“I’m really not sure about it,” he said.
“I think they do work. But telling people that they must wear them? I think that’s where I’m starting to have a problem with that,” Lomtadze said.
Health officials report the highly transmissible omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 now account for 40% of sequenced cases.
“That’s two and a half times higher than it was just two weeks earlier,” said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. “Both BA.4 and BA.5 are of special concern because of their ability to evade prior immunity.”
This means people who were previously infected with other variants can get it again.
“This is real, and the county has indicated that we’re heading towards indoor masking again,” said L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.
L.A. County reported 100 COVID-19 deaths in the past week – the highest total in three months.
“More people have died this year from COVID than flu, than from homicides, than from car accidents combined. I think all of us want this to be done. We think that it’s done, but it’s still quite dangerous,” said Garcetti.
He said the goal of universal indoor masking is to knock down the spread. And if everyone participated, we wouldn’t have to do it for long.
“It’s for the safety of you but it’s also for the safety of others,” said Orian Gaston who is visiting from Texas.
“If everybody does it, then yes if it’s required,” said tourist Mark Freegard
“We’d be happy to wear a mask if that was the mandate and everybody was doing it,” said Freegard’s wife, Alison.
“You know it sucks,” said Clyde Hayes of Los Angeles.
“But we got to do what we got to do,” said Kayla Star of Los Angeles.
“We gotta do what we gotta do to get back to normal,” said Hayes.
The White House COVID-19 response team is urging eligible Americans to get caught up on their vaccines and boosters. Wednesday, the FDA authorized the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 and older, making it the fourth vaccine to receive an emergency use authorization.
Copyright © 2022 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.
California county reinstates indoor mask mandate
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In California’s Bay Area, Alameda County residents will be required to mask up in most public indoor settings again.
Effective Friday, officials cited rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, noting that daily reported cases have exceeded the peak of last summer’s delta wave and are “now approaching levels seen during the winter 2020-21 wave, at comparable lab-reported testing levels.”
Reported cases are believed to be an underestimate of the total.
“Hospitalizations are also rising after remaining stable during the early weeks of this wave. Daily new admissions of patients with COVID-19 rapidly increased in recent days and now exceed last summer’s peak. We expect to reach [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC)] ‘High’ COVID-19 Community Level soon, given current trends,” the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency said in a release. “In addition, when COVID-19 cases started to rise again in April, we did not observe in our data the disproportionate impacts on communities of color. That is no longer true and Hispanic/Latino residents now have the highest case rate in Alameda County among the largest race/ethnicity groups.”
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While vaccination provides protection against severe illness, the agency said that the virus is circulating at “very high levels” and noted that masking provides an additional layer of protection.
“Rising COVID cases in Alameda County are now leading to more people being hospitalized and today’s action reflects the seriousness of the moment,” Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss explained in a statement. “We cannot ignore the data, and we can’t predict when this wave may end. Putting our masks back on gives us the best opportunity to limit the impact of a prolonged wave on our communities.”
“We are seeing the same pattern of disproportionate impact on hard hit communities play out again with rising cases,” said Kimi Watkins-Tartt, Director of AC HCSA’s Public Health Department. “Many Black and Brown residents are frontline workers who can’t work from home and are in workplaces where they frequently interact with the public. A masking order will limit the spread of COVID in these vulnerable communities.”
According to KTVU, the mask mandate applies to government offices, healthcare facilities, shelters and rideshare services.
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Children under the age of 2 should not mask and the county will not require masking in K-12 school settings through the end of the 2021-2022 school year.
Masks will be required in all other children and youth settings, including summer school and youth programs.
The order does not apply to the City of Berkeley, which is an independent Local Health Jurisdiction.
Oakland International Airport tweeted that everyone over the age of 2 must once again wear masks in indoor settings there.
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AC Transit also announced that it would restore its mask mandate policy on all buses “until further notice.”
“We know that policy changes can be frustrating to everyone. However, in support of our frontline workers and greater community, we ask our riders to respectfully comply with the restored mask mandate,” it wrote in a statement.
New York City expected to elevate to ‘high’ coronavirus alert level in coming days, indoor masks urged
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — New York City is expected to enter the high COVID-19 alert level in the coming days, and health officials are strongly recommending wearing masks in public indoor settings.
The city is currently in the medium alert level, but that is expected to change as cases increase.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued an advisory Monday that urges all residents to use high-quality masks – such as KN95 and KF94 masks and N95 respirators – when indoors and in a public setting, including at grocery stores, building lobbies, offices, stores, and other common or shared spaces where individuals may interact, such as restrooms, hallways, elevators, and meeting rooms.
The advisory notes particular importance for people who are at high risk of severe illness and death, namely those who are over 65 or who are unvaccinated.
Map: 7-day rolling positivity rates by Zip code:
The health department advises people at high risk of severe illness due to an underlying medical condition, older adults and people who are unvaccinated, including children under the age of five who are not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, to avoid crowded settings and non-essential gatherings, particularly indoors.
In addition, the advisory notes that the impact of COVID-19 transmission is higher in settings with a high number of unvaccinated people.
Despite the steady increase in COVID-19 infections across the state, New York City Mayor Eric Adams insisted on Monday that the city is not yet ready to reinstate its indoor mask mandate.
“We’re not at that point yet,” he said. “We’re not at the point of doing anything other than urging New Yorkers while you’re indoors in large set-in social settings. We’re not going to panic. We’re going to continue to be prepared.”
Infection rates across the city have been steadily on the rise for more than two months, and this week, New York City reported its highest average number of new infections since late January.
Adams stressed that even with increases, the city is in a different place than it was at the onset of the pandemic, with key tools now at people’s disposal to help blunt the impact of the virus.
“We now have the antivirals, we didn’t have that before,” he said. “We have more tools, so we don’t have to fight the war we had before. This is a new war. And we’re going to use all those tools to do so.”
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On the state level, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul reported on Monday that she continues to work with federal and state officials to ensure the state is prepared for any sort of surge that could appear in the months ahead.
“Today, I spoke with White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha about the state of the pandemic and the Administration’s preparation plans to ensure states have the resources, supplies, and distribution networks needed to manage potential surges across the country this summer and fall,” Hochul said in a press release.
Adams recently took action to bolster the city’s COVID-19 preparedness and prepare New Yorkers for any future waves, announcing the distribution of an additional 16.5 million at-home COVID-19 tests and 1 million high-quality masks over the next month to 1,600 public schools and more than 1,000 community organizations, libraries, cultural institutions, houses of worship, and elected offices participating in the city’s At-Home Test Distribution Program.
The distribution effort joins other measures to blunt the worst impacts of the current wave, including the distribution of 35,000 COVID-19 courses of treatment to date.
The city has also distributed 20 million at-home tests to schools and participating community organizations to date, meaning this additional surge of tests will bring the total distributed at-home tests to over 36 million. Additionally, eligible New Yorkers are encouraged to take advantage of free, at-home delivery of COVID-19 treatments.
“It’s never been easier for New Yorkers to get a free at-home test, a high-quality mask, or access COVID-19 treatments in New York City,” Adams said. “At-home tests and masks provide reliable and convenient ways for New Yorkers to confidently and safely protect themselves and others and allow them to enjoy our city. I encourage all New Yorkers to go out and pick up a free at-home test as soon as they can to remain prepared, to mask up in indoor public settings, and to take advantage of the life-saving treatments we now have readily available to fight this virus. These combined tools not only are a blessing that we previously did not have access to, but also will allow us to combat this disease in the future, instead of in the past.”
Through community partnerships, Test & Trace has distributed 2.3 million tests and currently maintains a stockpile of tens of millions of tests that can be rapidly distributed if needed.
At-home test distribution through Test & Trace’s network of 192 prominent cultural sites and library branches brings critical self-testing resources to areas of need at familiar locations in all five boroughs. Test & Trace makes weekly deliveries of at-home tests to participating cultural sites and libraries, where they are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
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Additionally, over 850 community and faith-based organizations – including 243 houses of worship – have signed up to regularly distribute at-home tests. Any New York City-based community organization that would like to participate as an at-home test distribution partner is encouraged to sign up online.
New Yorkers can find an at-home test distribution pick up location most convenient to them and their hours of operation by visiting the city’s COVID-19 testing page. New Yorkers with a disability who need assistance or have questions regarding at home test kits should call 311. Those who are deaf or hard of hearing and use American Sign Language can call via video phone at 646-396-5830.
New Yorkers who test positive using an at-home test can call 212-COVID19 to be connected to resources like free meal and care package delivery. Care packages contain personal protection equipment (PPE) for a household of three to quarantine, two rapid antigen at-home tests, and other necessities to help New Yorkers safely isolate.
Multiple COVID-19 treatments are available for people ages 12 and older, and can be delivered to New Yorkers’ homes for free. For more information on COVID-19 treatments, please call 212-COVID19 and press 9 or visit nyc.gov/health/covidtreatments.
Calling 212-COVID19 provides New Yorkers an immediate connection to a clinician who can refer them to monoclonal antibody treatment or prescribe antiviral medications, like Paxlovid, and arrange to have it delivered to their home that same day for free.
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High level of COVID-19 in Metro Detroit; indoor masking recommended
DETROIT – As COVID-19 cases climb back up in Michigan, the CDC is once again recommending everyone in Metro Detroit to mask up indoors and take the necessary precautions.
A newly released CDC map shows Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Livingston and St. Clair counties with a high level of community transmission of the virus, which means there’s a greater risk of catching it.
Because of this, schools are also being urged to mask up.
On Wednesday, the state reported 27,705 new cases over seven days, averaging out to 3,900 cases per day. That’s well above last week’s average of 2,700 cases per day.
Seventy-six deaths are also reported over that same seven day period.
That number may not reflect home test results if those cases aren’t reported to the state.
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Indoor masking recommended again in Northeast counties
Although COVID-19 infection and hospitalizations rates have been steadily on the rise across the United States, nowhere have the increases been more significant than in the Northeast.
Across the New England and greater New York and New Jersey regions, infection rates are nearing their highest levels in three months. COVID-19 related hospitalizations are increasing too — with daily admissions levels more than doubling in the last month.
Overnight, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its community risk levels, pushing many counties across the Northeast, particularly in New York and Massachusetts, to the “high” alert level. The “high” community level suggests there is a “high potential for healthcare system strain” and a “high level of severe disease”, and thus, the CDC recommends that people wear a mask in public indoor settings, including schools.
“If we were still using the original CDC COVID-19 risk classification, the northeast would be bright red, indicating uncontrolled community spread. This part of the country has some of the highest vaccination and booster rates, yet infections are still increasing,” Dr. Maureen Miller, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, told ABC News.
Although Manhattan and the rest of New York City are still considered “medium” risk, transmission rates have increased by nearly 33% in the last 10 days. Much of upstate New York is also now colored in orange for “high” risk.
Suffolk County, home to the city of Boston, as well as six other surrounding counties in Massachusetts are also now considered communities at “high” risk. Across the greater Boston area, wastewater levels are at their highest point since early February, with 20 to 29 year-old residents reporting the highest numbers of infections.
In many areas of Vermont and Maine, community levels have also reached the high or medium risk threshold, data shows. And across the region, six Northeast states — Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey — have the highest number of new cases, per capita, over the last week, of all 50 states.
“I do think that the wave we’re seeing is a real one, and probably much bigger than we appreciate. Since most cases of COVID-19 are not being reported — because people are testing at home or not at all — I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the number of daily infections now is higher than during delta, maybe even winter 2020-21,” David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News.
Health experts say the increases are driven by a confluence of factors, including the easing of masking requirements and other COVID-19 restrictions, as well as highly contagious omicron subvariants, most notably, BA.1.12.1. The subvariant is projected to account for about 36.5% of cases nationwide and 62% of infections in the New York-New Jersey region. BA.1.12.1 is estimated to be between 30% and 80% more transmissible than the original omicron strain.
“It is becoming clear that the latest version of omicron BA.2 and its offspring BA2.12.1 can evade immunity developed as a result of an original omicron infection. Vaccination for those who were infected–even with omicron–is still highly recommended to prevent the severe outcomes experienced primarily by the unvaccinated,” Miller said. “The big game changer in how this wave plays out is human behavior. There is now a huge body of evidence that proves that mask wearing helps slow the spread of COVID-19… I wear a mask every time I enter an indoor public place, from the supermarket to an airplane. Life can go on, but you need to be smart about it.”
Amid looming questions surrounding a potential return of mask and vaccine mandates, New York City Mayor Adams said Friday that officials are closely monitoring the increases, reiterating that the city will be ready to “pivot and shift” should reinstating mitigation measures be deemed necessary.
“We can’t control what this virus is doing. But we can control our response and we’re doing that,” Adams said Friday during an on-camera press conference. “Yes, we are concerned [about the numbers]. Yes, we are. But preparation, not panic, preparation, not panic. We are prepared as the city and we’re not going to panic.”
When asked whether the city would consider reinstating its mask mandate for K-12 schools and proof of vaccination requirement, Adams insisted that the city is “not there yet.”
“We’re going to pivot and shift like COVID pivots and shifts. Every morning we meet, and based on that outcome of our meetings, we’ll making an announcement where we’re going to go, if this stays at this level, we may pivot and shift and still do mandates, and we see an increase in hospitalization and deaths, that is alarming, we may shift. COVID pivots and shifts, I’m going to pivot and shift,” Adams reiterated. “No matter what happens, we’re going to make a determination after we have our morning meetings.”
Adams lauded the city’s high vaccination and booster rates, as well as access to at-home tests, which he said is helping to prevent a significant surge in hospitalizations and deaths.
Earlier this week, New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan told CNBC that if infections and hospitalizations continue to rise, masking and vaccination requirements certainly could return.
“It’s clear that if we moved into a high risk and high alert environment, we’d be seriously considering bringing those mandates back,” Vasan said on Tuesday.