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What are the three Cs mentioned by Professor Jonathan Van-Tam?


By PA News

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What are the three Cs mentioned by Professor Jonathan Van-Tam? (Danny Lawson/PA)

England’s deputy chief medical officer has said there are three Cs that make conditions which favour the spread of coronavirus.

Speaking at a Downing Street briefing Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said Japan’s three Cs, along with D for, duration and V for volume, should be considered when talking about restrictions on hospitality venues.

In March the Prime Minister’s Office of Japan stressed the need for people to avoid overlapping three conditions.

But what are the three Cs?

– Closed spaces: This sets out that it cannot be assumed that large rooms are safe, or that small rooms are unsafe. Instead, ventilation is very important.

– Crowded places: The advice is to avoid crowded spaces and make room for other people – two metres or more.

– Close contact settings – People are asked to avoid conversations in close contact settings, as the virus can be spread through droplets created by speech.

The advice is to avoid the three Cs, in addition to maintaining the hand washing and face covering measures that are recommended.

Prof Van-Tam said that as well as the three Cs, people need to be aware of duration and volume.

He explained that there is increasingly strong evidence about shouting and singing as pressure points on the virus in terms of making the expulsion of virus laden particles, go further.

When speaking about duration he said that the duration of time someone spent in one of the three Cs would also impact the likelihood of Covid-19 being spread.

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