Ventilation

Ventilation is the act of providing air from outside to a room or building or changing the air using filters and purifiers that essentially "recycle" the air so it is clean. This is important because ventilation reduces the spread of viruses and particles. How does ventilation reduce this? When there is a high concentration of people in one room, in a poorly ventilated area, there is going to be a higher concentration of particles of a virus, if there is one present. This is because poor ventilation means there is low airflow, allowing the particles to accumulate. However, if the ventilation in a room or building is better and not poor, then there will be fewer particles accumulating, hence reducing the spread of a virus

In 2019, researchers in Taiwan held a study on the effect of ventilation on a widespread tuberculosis outbreak at Taipei University. Many rooms were extremely under-ventilated and even had carbon dioxide levels above 3000 ppm. Engineers improved the air circulation and managed to reduce the CO2 levels to 600 ppm. The outbreak completely stopped after improving the ventilation. According to the research, the increase in ventilation was responsible for 97% of the decrease in transmission.