On the airborne aspect of COVID-19 coronovirus

TL;DR

This paper suggests that COVID-19 can be airborne in respiratory droplets, which may remain suspended longer than commonly believed, challenging current social distancing guidelines.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that COVID-19 can be transmitted through airborne droplets and provides calculations on droplet suspension times, highlighting potential limitations of existing distancing measures.

Findings

$5~\mu m$ droplets can stay suspended for about 9 minutes.

$2~\mu m$ droplets can stay suspended for about an hour.

Current social distancing guidelines may be insufficient in some scenarios.

Abstract

It is a widely accepted view that COVID 19 is either transmitted via surface contamination or via close contact of an un-infected person with an infected person. Surface contamination usually happens when infected water droplets from exhalation/sneeze/cough of COVID sick person settle on nearby surfaces. To curb this, social distancing and good hand hygiene advise is advocated by World health Organization (WHO). We argue that COVID 19 coronovirus can also be airborne in a puff cloud loaded with infected droplets generated by COVID sick person. An elementary calculation shows that a $5~\mu m$ respiratory infected droplet can remain suspended for about 9.0 minutes and a $2~\mu m$ droplet can remain suspended for about an hour! And social distancing advise of 3 feet by WHO and 6 feet by CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) may not be sufficient in some circumstances as discussed in the text.