Indoors ventilation in times of confinement by SARS-CoV-2 epidemic: A comparative approach between Spain and Italy

Highlights

• Regulatory measures are not adequate to guarantee healthy environment indoors.

• In Italy air flows required in the applicable regulations are more restrictive than in Spain.

• The number of renewals per hour is low, both for Italy and Spain.

• The need arises to update ventilation legislation with adequate criteria to avoid aerosol contagion indoors.

Abstract

With the arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the scientific academia, as well as policymakers, are striving to conceive solutions as an attempt to contain the spreading of contagion. Among the adopted measures, severe lockdown restrictions were issued to avoid the diffusion of the virus in an uncontrolled way through public spaces. It can be deduced from recent literature that the primary route of transmission is via aerosols, produced mainly in poorly ventilated interior areas where infected people spend a lot of time with other people.

Concerning contagion rates, accumulated incidence or number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19, Spain, and Italy have reached very high levels. In this framework, a regression analysis to assess the feasibility of the indoor ventilation measures established in Spain and Italy, with respect to the European framework, is here presented. To this aim, ten cases of housing typology were and analyzed. The results show that the measures established in the applicable regulations to prevent and control the risk of contagion by aerosols are not adequate to guarantee a healthy environment indoors. The current Italian guidelines are more restrictive than in Spain, yet the ventilation levels are still insufficient in times of pandemic.