COVID-19 pandemic: Impact of lockdown, contact and non-contact transmissions on infection dynamics

Shovonlal Roy

During the lockdown period, strong measures will be required to significantly reduce the routes of transmission. Contact transmission should be reduced as much as possible. There is, however, the possibility that the indirect or non-contact transmission route is ignored, which will be less helpful in reducing the infection cases in situation where the relative strength of this transmission rate is high. Therefore, pro-active measures should be taken to reduce non-contact transmission. Some of those measures may involve frequent and wider uses of areal and aerosol disinfectant in public spaces to improve contaminated surfaces and air, as has been done by certain countries (e.g., China, World Economic Forum report). Ignoring non-contact transmission should not be compensated by far stricter lockdown or unachievable lockdown measures, as the mitigation strategy should not be solely based on contact route of transmission.