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According to the model, particles carrying the virus remain in the air for several minutes and then disperse.
Finnish scientists have developed a 3D model that mimics the spread of coronavirus released from the airways when coughing. According to preliminary results, the pathogenic load remains in the air for several minutes.
To conduct the study, four academic institutions – Aalto University, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the Finnish Technical Research Center VTT and the University of Helsinki – independently modeled a scenario in which an infected person coughs in a supermarket, in the hallway on the sides of the shelf, taking into account the ventilation conditions.
The results were the same for four academic entities: a cloud of particles spreads quickly from the place where the person who coughs, and eventually dissolves in a few minutes.
The distance this cloud travels depends on the size of the particles. The researchers created a model using particles smaller than 20 micrometers as a reference, which prevents them from quickly falling to the ground. Dry cough, a typical symptom of covid-19, usually has a particle size of less than 15 microns.
“If a person infected with a coronavirus coughs and leaves, he leaves in suspension extremely small particles that carry the coronavirus. And these particles can get into the respiratory tract of other people nearby, ”says professor at Aalto University, professor Ville Vuorinen.
The spread of the virus in society has been carefully studied. Models by these researchers show that restricting movement at “nodal points,” such as shops, restaurants, and public transportation, can “slow down or even suppress” the spread of the disease.
According to the researchers, these results confirm the need to maintain distance and avoid places that receive a significant flow of people in the current distribution of coronavirus.
