'Covid Can Be Transmitted Beyond 6 Feet': US CDC States Coronavirus Is Airborne

The smallest very fine droplets, and aerosol particles formed when these fine droplets rapidly dry, are small enough that they can remain suspended in the air for minutes to hours, says CDC

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States have revised its guidelines related to Coronavirus being airborne. 

The new global advice says current evidence suggests that coronavirus mainly spreads through close contact via aerosols or droplets and it can also spread within poorly ventilated and crowded indoor spaces because aerosols can remain suspended in the air and travel more than a metre.

The CDC advice, updated on Friday, lists “breathing in air when close to an infected person who is exhaling small droplets and particles that contain the virus” as the first of one of three ways COVID-19 spreads.

It says the most common way to get infected is to breathe in small droplets or particles from an infected person who is standing within two metres, or having small droplets and particles land on the eyes, nose or mouth, especially from cough and sneezes.

The agency states: “Inhalation of air carrying very small fine droplets and aerosol particles that contain infectious virus. Risk of transmission is greatest within three to six feet of an infectious source where the concentration of these very fine droplets and particles is greatest."

It however also warned that airborne virus can be transmitted even if the infectious source is farther than six feet in certain conditions, largely indoors.

"People release respiratory fluids during exhalation (e.g., quiet breathing, speaking, singing, exercise, coughing, sneezing) in the form of droplets across a spectrum of sizes. These droplets carry virus and transmit infection," the revised guidelines on the website noted.

Recently, a Lancet study, justifying the clamour, said that there is consistent and strong evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is predominantly transmitted through the air.