We have to live with COVID. Here's how we get our lives back. - The Japan Times

Two years into the pandemic, the emergence of yet another COVID-19 variant has brought home the fact that the virus is here to stay.

In buildings where air is recirculated, the air should go through filters that remove particles and possibly viruses, said Lidia Morawska, director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at the Queensland University of Technology.

The transmission risk can be higher at restaurants that just have standard air conditioning without ventilation and patrons have their masks off when eating, she says, recommending a carbon dioxide monitor on the wall of every public space.

A medical technician draws blood from a nurse for a COVID-19 antibody test at Chiba University Hospital in Chiba on Wednesday.

Morawska points to Germany, which started working on addressing the air quality risk early on — the government said in October 2020 it would invest a total of €500 million ($565 million) to improve ventilation systems in public buildings, such as offices, museums, theaters and schools.

Hepa filters and other air cleaning tools are already used by health conscious households in Asian cities that face chronic or recurrent pollution; COVID-19 simply adds urgency to addressing the issue of air quality.

Rapid at-home tests for COVID-19 are crucial for resuming normal social and economic activities, but the cost varies country by country.

In the U.S., they can start at $14 for a two-pack, if you can find them, while tests are provided free in the U.K.

“The biggest problem of COVID-19 is the airborne transmission from asymptomatic people,” said Kenji Shibuya, an epidemiologist and research director at the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research.

The U.K.’s National Health Service recommends people do a rapid test twice a week and self-isolate if the virus is detected, launching a campaign earlier this year to provide free rapid tests to the nation.

Germany has brought back free rapid tests for all at sites sprinkled across cities.

A health care worker directs passengers waiting in line at a COVID-19 testing center at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, on Friday.

The country, which has sent out millions of free antigen rapid test kits to households, will require medically eligible employees either to be vaccinated or to undergo testing at their own cost before entering the workplace from next year.

Primary school students were told to take a rapid antigen test once every two weeks.

Donning a face mask more than halves the risk of getting COVID-19, according to a review of eight studies published in the British Medical Journal.

Allowing flexibility to work from home isn’t just about keeping employees mentally happy, but helps to limit the health risk as well.

The risk of airborne transmission could be cut fourfold by halving the occupancy of an office, modeling by scientists including Paul Linden at the University of Cambridge shows.

Most workers in well-ventilated, quiet offices are unlikely to infect each other via airborne particles, but the risk becomes greater if the space is poorly ventilated or if the workers are involved in activities that require more speaking, according to the study published in the journal Indoor and Built Environment.