“There’s some reports that malls, bars, certain social clubs with air conditioning, that air conditioning may not be cleansing the air of the virus, just recirculating the air with the virus.” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a briefing Wednesday. Malls and gyms will not be a part of New York’s phase four reopening because of this concern.

But experts say there’s little evidence to link air conditioning to the spread of the coronavirus. Rather, the risk more likely comes from the amount of time spent indoors in close proximity to others.

“The opening up of facilities from my point of view, and I think this is shared by colleagues, that doesn’t depend on the air conditioning, it’s the gathering of the people for long periods of time,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

“You can think of laboratory experiments and theoretical possibilities of how air conditioning might spread this virus, but so far, there really isn’t any noteworthy evidence that this is happening,” he said.