Abstract:
Objective To monitor the sanitary conditions of some key public places in Beijing, China since the COVID-19 outbreak, analyze the impact of COVID-19 on indoor air quality and bacterial colonies on object surfaces in public places, and provide data for hygienic management in public places in the context of normalized epidemic prevention and control.
Methods Samples were collected from 2018 to 2021 in hotels and station waiting rooms for detection of CO2, PM2.5, and PM10, as well as total number of bacterial colonies in indoor air and on object surfaces. Meanwhile, the ventilation of the site and the knowledge of the disease transmission risk of the practitioners were investigated, and the result were summarized and analyzed.
Results There was no significant impact of COVID-19 on the ventilation mode of hotels and station waiting rooms in Beijing (P>0.05), and the awareness rate of disease transmission risk knowledge among employees in public places was significantly higher after the outbreak than that before the outbreak. The difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The overall qualified rate of hygienic indicators in hotels and station waiting rooms was 98.4% after COVID-19 outbreak, which was significantly higher than that before the epidemic (P < 0.05). Moreover, the concentrations of CO2, PM2.5, PM10 in indoor air of hotels, and the concentrations of CO2 in indoor air and total number of bacterial coloniest on object surfaces in station waiting rooms were significantly lower after the epidemic (P < 0.05).
Conclusion After the outbreak of COVID-19, epidemic prevention and control measures, such as strengthening ventilation and controlling the number of people indoors, together with publicity and education of epidemic prevention knowledge, have improved the sanitary situation in key public places in Beijing.