CDC says it mistakenly posted that coronavirus is airborne

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed an update on its website that stated coronavirus commonly spreads through the air, saying the post was shared by mistake.

“A draft version of proposed changes to these recommendations was posted in error to the agency’s official website,” the organization wrote Monday.

The CDC has contended in the past that covid-19 is primarily transmitted through close contact between people.

In the erroneously shared update, which was released last Friday, the CDC’s coronavirus guidelines page listed “respiratory droplets or small particles, such as those in aerosols” as one of the ways that covid-19 “most commonly spreads.”

“It is possible that covid-19 may spread through the droplets and airborne particles that are formed when a person who has covid-19 coughs, sneezes, sings, talks, or breathes,” the since-deleted post read.

Following Monday’s update, the CDC’s webpage says the “virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person.”

In July, the World Health Organization said there was “emerging evidence” of an airborne spread of coronavirus after 250 scientists across the world signed an open letter urging the group to acknowledge as much.

There have been more than 31 million confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide, and more than 960,000 deaths. The United States has experienced more than 6 million confirmed cases and was approaching 200,000 deaths Monday afternoon.