Guest Comment: Environmental Transmission and Control of COVID-19 Special Issue

摘要

The pandemic of COVID-19 has already lasted for more than one year. Until the end of February 2021, the global number of laboratory-confirmed cases exceeded 110 million, and the associated deaths were more than 2.5 million. Yet, we do not see a clear end although a number of vaccines have been administrated in many countries. The emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants among several countries at the start of 2021 further increases the uncertainty of the development of the pandemic. At the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, ES&T started to plan the special issue of "Environmental Transmission and Control of COVID-19", and formally issued a call for papers on the potential environmental transmission of the virus and development of strategies for intervention of pandemic on the global environment. Thereafter, the importance of environmental transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was confirmed, and the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the role of aerosol transmission in the spread of COVID-19 in July 2020. Changes in human behavior during the pandemic, a result of restrictions on human activities and travel alongside a global increase in the use and disposal of personal protective equipment (PPE), have significantly impacted the environment.