Comparison of COVID-19 infection risks through aerosol transmission in supermarkets and small shops

Aerosol transmission is academically recognized as possible transmission route of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We established an approach to assess the airborne-disease infection risks through aerosol transmission based on the dose-response model and aerosol transport model. The accuracy of evaluation was guaranteed with on-site surveyed ventilation rate and occupant behavior. With the proposed approach, COVID-19 infection risks in 5 typical supermarkets and 21 small shops were evaluated. With one original infected early-shift staff, the average aerosols concentrations at steady-state are 1.06 × 10-3 RNA copies/m3 in the supermarkets and 4.73 × 10-2 RNA copies/m3 in the small shops. With the assumption of 5% original infected staff in the retail buildings, the infection probability of one customer is 1.40 × 10-6 for visiting one small shop and 6.22 × 10-6 for visiting one supermarket. The averaged infection risk in the supermarkets is higher than the small shops (p-value<0.001). On the other hand, the infection risks are higher for the staff working with the infected staff compared with the customers. The proposed approach can be applied to other occupied buildings and assist the pandemic control policy making for sustainable cities and society.