There are thousands of ponds (a small body of still water formed naturally or by artificial means.) in Bangladesh. People in rural Bangladesh used to have their bath in those ponds. Is it possible to be infected with COVID-19 during bathing when COVID-19 patients in their asymptomatic state are using the same ponds for a bath (as COVID-19 patients can transmit the disease in the asymptomatic state)?
That depends on the livability of SARS-CoV-2 in water.
In the Netherlands SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in waste water.
It is used as indicator/early warning system that COVID-19 is around even if no cases has been tested positive yet.
My gut feeling is maybe, if the number of virus particles is high enough...
There is an old paper from 2009:
Survival of Coronaviruses in Water and Wastewater
Patricia M. Gundy, Charles P. Gerba &
Ian L. Pepper. Food Environ Virol (2009) 1:10–14
DOI 10.1007/s12560-008-9001-6
The deciding sentence from the above said paper Gunde/Gerba/Pepper:
"Coronaviruses die off rapidly in wastewater"...
But certainly more studies on the viability of SARS-'CoV-2 in water/waste water are required.
Thanks Christian G Meyer, Carsten Weerth and Hassan Izzeddin Sarsak for your useful inputs and the links you shared.
May be or may be not. At this time of surge in transmission, there is need to discourage such recreational activities. You know studies on the viral survival in different environments are not complete. We hope to know more about this strain soon or may be after the pandemic. Stay safe.
Dear Nwangwu Chukwuemeka thanks for your comments. In all most all the cases our people do not use ponds for recreational activities. In our country where the normal temperature in summer is nearly 35-38°C, here people use the ponds to have their daily bath to get some comfort at this very high environmental temperature and to clean themselves. All most all the people of a village use a pond to have their daily bath and for other household activities, those require water. Here I attach a picture of a pond where children are taking their bath.
Why social distancing is the key measure, see
https://de.statista.com/infografik/21186/was-social-distancing-beim-coronavirus-bewirkt/
Thanks to Carsten Weerth for that reply. I was reminded to comment on this as many commonly use swimming pools.
Harasit Kumar Paul
Have a look at this useful RG link.
Article COVID-19 transmission during swimming-related activities: a ...
Thanks!