| Health / Health News |
Keeping indoor humidity levels at a "sweet spot" may reduce spread of COVID-19
Proper indoor ventilation is key to reducing the spread of COVID-19. Now, a study by MIT researchers finds that indoor relative humidity may also influence transmission of the virus.
Indoor humidity. Photo: Anne Nygård/Unsplash
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.
The team reports that maintaining an indoor relative humidity between 40% and 60% 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% relative humidity, and an airplane cabin is at around 20% 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 pre-vaccination, the estimated indoor relative humidity in that region, on average, was either lower than 40% or higher than 60%, regardless of season.
Nearly all regions in the study experienced fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths during periods when estimated indoor relative humidity was at a "sweet spot" between 40% and 60%.
"There's potentially a protective effect of this intermediate indoor relative humidity," suggests lead author Connor Verheyen.
"Indoor ventilation is still critical," says co-author Lydia Bourouiba. "However, we find that maintaining an indoor relative humidity in that sweet spot — of 40 to 60% — is associated with reduced COVID-19 cases and deaths. (U.S. National Science Foundation)
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