Anatomy of a Healthy School

While the primary method of COVID-19 transmission is person-to-person through respiratory droplets, which are released when someone with COVID-19 sneezes, coughs, or talks, current data does not support long-range aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2, such as seen with measles or tuberculosis. Short-range inhalation of aerosols is a possibility for COVID-19, as with many respiratory pathogens, and short-range transmission is a possibility, particularly in crowded medical wards and in inadequately ventilated spaces. But even in the absence of definitive data, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has asserted that, “Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 through the air is sufficiently likely that airborne exposure to the virus should be controlled.”