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How airborne is Covid-19? Like cigarette smoke spreading in a room, says expert
Enclosed spaces or areas which are poorly ventilated there are increased chances of this disease spreading from one person to another.
As the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic rages across India, international health experts have warned that the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is airborne but it does not mean that the virus is out there spreading through the air and anyone who goes outside will simply get infected by breathing.
The United States Centers of Disease Control (CDC) on Friday issued a new advisory regarding the transmission of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and highlighted that there are three primary ways in which a person can contract Covid-19. The CDC said that the virus spreads primarily by inhalation, deposition and touching. The CDC advisory says when one inhales the air carrying very small fine droplets or aerosol particles containing the virus, one gets infected.
It highlights that the risk of transmission is greatest within three to six feet of an infected person as the amount of these droplets are very fine in nature. It said that these droplets spread through exhalation during activities such as quiet breathing, speaking, singing, exercise, coughing, sneezing and transmitting the infection.
This means that in enclosed spaces or areas which are poorly ventilated there are increased chances of this disease spreading from one person to another. The CDC also pointed out that large droplets are not concerning as they disperse within seconds but fine droplets and aerosol particles which are formed when these droplets dry up can remain suspended for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Two medical health experts dealing with the Covid-19 second wave also told HT recently that being airborne does not mean that the virus is out there in the air.
“Airborne does not mean it is in the air and wherever you are you can catch it. If there is Covid-19 positive person in a small room or an enclosed space which lacks ventilation and the person coughs, the aerosol remains suspended in the air for 30 minutes to 1 hour,” Dr Rommel Tickoo of Max Healthcare told HT on Friday.
Another expert, Dr Ambarish Satwik, who is a vascular and endovascular surgeon at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said that one can imagine these aerosols as smoke cloud emanated from a person smoking. “If someone is smoking a cigarette in a corner of a large room, then you can smell the cigarette smoke standing in another corner of the room. This is how the virus is currently behaving. It is dissipating from one part of the room to another and if one person is infected in that room, it is likely that others sharing the same space will get infected if they are unmasked. Even if you enter a room where a person had smoked a cigarette an hour earlier, you still get the smell, so that is also another example of how the virus is behaving.”
Both doctors also highlighted that people are still unaware of how to wear a mask properly. They also said that people are often surprised regarding how they contracted the virus. “Half the people do not know how to wear a mask, they think they have done whatever it takes but they go out for groceries or to the pharmacy, they meet people and they tend to fiddle with the mask and that is how they get it. It is not airborne to the extent that wherever you go you catch the virus,” Tickoo further added.
