Aerosol emission rates from playing wind instruments – Implications for COVID-19 transmission during music performance

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThe pandemic of COVID-19 led to exceeding restrictions especially in public life and music business. Airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 demands for risk assessment also in wind playing situations. Previous studies focused on short-range transmission, whereas long-range transmission has not been assessed so far.Methods and findingsWe measured resulting aerosol concentrations in a hermetically closed cabin of 20 m3 in an operating theatre from 20 minutes standardized wind instrument playing (19 flute, 11 oboe, 1 clarinet, 1 trumpet players). Based on the data, we calculated total aerosol emission rates showing uniform distribution for both instrument groups (flute, oboe). Aerosol emission from wind instruments playing ranged from 7 ± 327 particles/second (P/s) up to 2583 ± 236 P/s, average rate ± standard deviation. The analysis of the aerosol particle size distribution showed that about 70 − 80% of emitted particles had a size ≤ 0.4 µm and thus being alveolar. Masking the bell with a surgical mask did not reduce aerosol emission. Aerosol emission rates were higher from wind instruments playing than from speaking and breathing. Differences between instrumental groups could not be found, but high interindividual variance as expressed by uniform distribution of aerosol emission rates.ConclusionsOur findings indicate that aerosol emission depends on physiological factors and playing techniques rather than on the type of instrument, in contrast to some previous studies. Based on our results, we present risk calculations for long-range transmission of COVID-19 for three typical woodwind playing situations.