Experts question China's obsessive disinfection drive against covid

New Delhi: Residents in China's industrial city of Shanghai must be tired of Hazmat suit-wearing health workers in the streets every day.

The epicenter of raging covid outbreak has little respite from massive chemical fogging underway in the city.

Any exposed surface is a target of spraying disinfectant by health workers, to curb the spread of the Omicron variant.

China's 'zero-Covid' policy is overreaching its hopes of ensuring better health to the city's residents.

Quoting experts, CNN reports that China must stop this obsession.

Experts have warned of potential risks from obsessive disinfection drives—after all chemicals are being used.

Shanghai has seen struggling from covid curbs and lockdown alongside continual chemical fogging.

Exposure to harsh disinfection could harm people, according to Emanuel Goldman of Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School.

Thousands of workers including firefighters have been deployed to carry out the task of disinfecting public places.

They focus mainly on areas that hosted Covid patients, which the government considers as key to curbing the spread of the Omicron variant.

A local group has hired volunteers for disinfection squads and emergency rescue teams, reports say.

Some neigbourhoods see chemical producing stations rising up, alongside there are chemical tanks, and vehicles come attached with chemical shooting cannons.

Disinfection robots work at railway stations and patrol some quarantine centres.

Authorities believe it pays to continue with large-scale disinfection drive.

Many believe it is a futile attempt, given the fact that transmission of virus from open surfaces is extremely low.

Sanitizing outdoor areas including parks and city streets is largely pointless; it could be harmful for public health, reports say.

According to Dale Fisher of Singapore's Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, there is no role for mass disinfection of outdoor areas in stopping virus transmission.

Employing robots to disinfection drive is part of the government's performative acts, according to Nicholas Thomas of City University of Hong Kong.

The chance of contracting the virus from a contaminated surface is less than one in 10,000, said US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a study.

According to Emanuel Goldman of New Jersey Medical School the virus dies quickly outside an infected person.

Hand-washing with soap or alcohol wipes is more effective in stopping transmission.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said contracting covid-19 via food or food packaging was highly unlikely.