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The microscopic Covid cough droplets can travel more than six meters and still infect people once evaporated, new research reveals.
Scientists made the discovery while plotting the flight paths of such particles hoping to have a better understanding of the spread of the coronavirus.
The results reveal that large, medium and small cough droplets can spread in different ways depending on external conditions.
The largest droplets, which quickly fall to the ground due to gravity, can travel one meter even without wind.
Smaller particles, which are lighter and travel farther, can still infect a person with coronavirus even after they evaporate into the air.
The author of the study, Dr. Hongying Li, of the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A * STAR), said: “An evaporating droplet holds the non-volatile viral content, so the viral load has actually increased.
(Image: A * STAR IHPC / SWNS)
“This means that evaporated droplets that become aerosols are more likely to be inhaled deep into the lung, which causes infection in the lower parts of the respiratory tract, compared to larger non-evaporated droplets.”
A typical cough emits thousands of droplets over a wide range of sizes.
In their new study, the scientists examined droplet dispersion using airflow simulation tools.
They found large droplets that quickly deposited on the ground due to gravity, but could be projected a meter from the cough jet even without wind.
Medium-sized droplets could evaporate into smaller droplets, which are lighter and more easily borne by the wind, and these have traveled farther.
(Image: Getty Images / iStockphoto)
The results reveal that a single 100 micrometer cough droplet can travel up to 6.6 meters with a wind speed of two meters per second.
And the droplets could travel further in dry air conditions due to evaporation of the droplets.
The findings once again highlight the importance of social distancing as well as wearing a mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Study author Dr Fong Yew Leong, also from A * STAR Singapore, said: “In addition to wearing a mask, we found social distance to be generally effective, as droplet deposition is shown to be reduced. on a person who is at least in the meter from the cough. “
He added: “The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led many researchers to study the transmission of airborne droplets in different conditions and environments.
“The latest studies are beginning to incorporate important aspects of fluid physics to deepen our understanding of viral transmission.”
Researchers used computational tools to solve complicated mathematical formulations representing airflow and airborne cough droplets.
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This applied to cough droplets around human bodies at various wind speeds and when affected by other environmental factors.
The researchers point out that their findings strongly depend on environmental conditions, such as wind speed, humidity levels and ambient air temperature.
They are also based on assumptions made by the existing scientific literature on the feasibility of the COVID-19 virus.
While the team has focused on outdoor air broadcasting in a tropical setting, they plan to apply their findings to assess risk in indoor and outdoor environments where crowds gather, such as conference rooms or amphitheaters.
Their research could also be applied to the design of environments that optimize comfort and safety, such as hospital rooms that take into account internal airflow and the transmission of pathogens by air.
The results were published in the Physics of Fluids journal.
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