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One person on a stuffy Chinese bus infected nearly two dozen other passengers with coronavirus even though many were not seated nearby, according to a study published today.
The researchers say the findings offer new evidence that the disease can spread through the air.
Health authorities had initially ruled out the possibility that simply breathing could send infectious droplets into the air, but they took a 180-degree turn when experts increased pressure and increased testing.
The article published in JAMA Internal Medicine investigates the threat of airborne infection by closely observing passengers who made a 50-minute trip to a Buddhist event in the city of Ningbo, in eastern China, aboard two buses in January before face masks became routine against the virus.
Investigators believe that a passenger, whose gender was not identified, was likely patient zero because the person had been in contact with people from Wuhan, the city where the contagion emerged late last year.
Scientists managed to map where the other passengers were seated and also test them for the virus, and 23 out of 68 passengers were later confirmed to be infected on the same bus.
What is remarkable is that the disease infected people in the front and rear of the bus, outside the 1 to 2 meter (three to six foot) perimeter that authorities and experts say infectious droplets can travel.
In addition, the sick passenger still had no symptoms of the disease, such as a cough, when the group made their trip to a religious event.
The researchers also noticed that the air conditioner simply recirculated the air inside the bus, which likely contributed to the spread of the virus.
“Research suggests that, in closed environments with recirculation of air, SARS-CoV-2 is a highly transmissible pathogen,” they wrote, referring to the name of the virus.
“Our finding of a possible airborne transmission is of significant public health importance.”
Their study, which includes a diagram showing where each infected passenger sat, adds to the evidence of airborne transmission, including research on how the virus spreads between diners’ tables at a restaurant in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. .
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