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Making Music: Aerosols, Droplets and the Risks of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission
JONATHAN P. REID, Florence Gregson, Bryan R. Bzdek, Declan Costello, Natalie Watson, Christopher Orton, Pallav Shah, James Calder, University of Bristol
Abstract Number: 237
Working Group: The Role of Aerosol Science in the Understanding of the Spread and Control of COVID-19 and Other Infectious Diseases
Abstract
Abruptly in late March 2020, live musical performances and rehearsals were suspended in the UK after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, threatening the livelihoods of many musicians and the viability of established institutions. During the easing of restrictions imposed during lockdown, the implications of relaxing the restrictions on rehearsals and live musical performances involving singing, and brass and woodwind instruments were widely debated. These concerns focused on the potential of spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus through droplet and aerosol transmission, with numerous cases of transmission widely reported in choirs. Despite these concerns, very little information was available about the aerosol and droplet concentrations generated by singing and musical instruments. The correlation between the loudness of speech and the number of generated respirable particles and droplets, spanning a continuum in size from 100s nanometres to 100s of micrometres, had been reported previously. However, expiratory events such as speaking, coughing and sneezing, generate very small number of aerosol particles and droplets, so few that they are normally unmeasurable against a much larger background concentration. Benefiting from access to the extremely clean environment of an orthopaedic operating theatre in a hospital, with a background particle concentration of 0 cm-3 for particles larger than 300 nm in size, we will report measurements of aerosol particle and droplet concentrations generated by singers, and woodwind and brass instrument musicians. Measurements were undertaken with over forty professional performers from the Royal Opera House and the BBC Chorus. Uniquely, we will report measurements of the size distributions and distance dependencies from singing and instruments, measured synchronously by up to three aerodynamic particle sizers and two optical particle sizers, probing the dispersion of the aerosol jet. We will reflect the policy implications of this work for the reopening of the performing arts.