How far can the SARS-CoV-2 travel from person to person? The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that social distancing should be six-feet away from each other. However, one study shows that the virus could easily be spread in a distance of 26 feet away-- over four queen-size beds-- especially in a colder area. Here's the study.
How far should you be around strangers?
In a Daily Mail UK report, German researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research found that humans can acquire the virus even you are more than 26 feet or eight meters away from a positive COVID-19 patient.
The study was figured out in a slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck, Germany. An exact number of 1,500 workers were said to be infected inside the meat plant. As explained, the place has a temperature of 10 degrees Celsius or 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Though the guidelines were being followed, the company did not know that one worker in the plant acquired positive COVID-19 while still working for the company. Since the slaughterhouse is in a cold area, the air was circulating faster than usual, infecting thousand of people from the plant.
When their worker coughs or sneezes, the particles from his virus come out and circulates in the air, unnoticed by naked eyes. Researchers found that the colder the place is, the virus gets stronger with its circulation.
"Our results indicate that the conditions of the cutting operation - the low temperature, low fresh air supply, and constant air circulation through the air conditioning in the hall, together with strenuous physical work - the aerosol transmission of SARS- CoV-2 particles over larger supported distances," said Professor Adam Grundhoff, one of the study authors and a virologist at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology.
Does it mean indoors are not safe anymore?
One of the best advice of the health agencies is for people to stay in the comfort of their homes. In this way, there will be less interaction with strangers that could have the viral disease or vice versa.
However, due to the new German study, people are now asking whether staying indoors is now a dangerous thing.
As of now, there are still no studies saying that staying indoors at your home is not the best thing to do amid pandemic. In fact, Dr. Simon Clarke, a cellular microbiologist at the University of Reading, does not confirm that colder environments are bad for humans.
"One assumes - but it's just an idea - that the cold environment makes people more susceptible to the virus. Cold weather irritates the airways and the cells become more susceptible to viral infection," said him.
