Should sanitation tents be used for prevention of COVID-19 transmission?

Abstract

KEY FINDINGS
 There is currently no evidence to support the use of sanitation tents in the prevention of COVID-19 transmission.
 • Sanitation tents or disinfection tents have been installed in various areas of the Philippines as a measure to decontaminate individuals and prevent COVID-19 transmission.• The commonly used disinfectant in these tents is diluted household bleach. Others propose to use alcohol or diluted povidone iodine to decontaminate individuals in the tent.• Bleach is an irritant to mucous membranes and loses its antimicrobial effect over time or when exposed to heat and sunlight.• Alcohol is flammable and also causes irritation to mucous membranes.• Povidone iodine may cause skin irritation, chemical pneumonitis when inhaled, and acute kidney injury when systemically absorbed.• There are no completed or ongoing studies on the use of sanitation tents for the prevention of COVID-19 transmission.• To date, there are no guidelines that recommend the use of sanitation tents for prevention of COVID-19 transmission.• The World Health Organization explicitly recommends against spraying alcohol or chlorine all over a person's body due to adverse health effects and the lack of inhibitory activity against viruses that have already entered the body.• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note that most environmental protection agency-registered household disinfectants are effective against COVID-19. However, these products are approved for use only on surfaces and not on humans.• The Department of Health guidelines recommend the avoidance of spraying or misting for COVID-19 due to lack of evidence of its efficacy.

‘Loob’ and ‘labas’: Spatial constructions of safety and risk amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines

“…Once, the second author even experienced getting forcibly misted in an elevator. Misting commonly used alcohol or chlorine-based chemicals like diluted bleach, and it was deemed hazardous enough that medical experts quickly and repeatedly sounded the alarm against it ( Eubanas and Bayona, 2021 ; Tan-Lim and Melendres, 2020 ). In June 2020, a police doctor assigned to a quarantine facility in Pasig City died after being sprayed with and inhaling toxic amounts of disinfectant while at work ( Talabong, 2020 ).…”