The coronavirus can remain viable in aerosols many minutes or possibly hours, research suggests. The risk is known to be much greater indoors, especially in poorly ventilated buildings, compared to outside.
Infection can occur when these particles are inhaled by another person or they otherwise get in the eyes, nose, or mouth. Surfaces can harbor the virus and cause infections, but the most common method is through the air, experts say, and they urge a layered approach to lowering risks — clearing or diluting indoor air, masking up, distancing, and disinfecting surfaces.
“I think it is possible in a house, if you don’t have proper filtration, to actually spread the virus.”
“There is definitely a risk of airborne transmission in a home, but at the moment, we do not know the importance of any particular transmission route,” says Linsey Marr, PhD, an expert in airborne transmission of viruses at Virginia Tech. “Given the evidence, it seems wise to take a precautionary approach and take measures to reduce the risk of transmission via respiratory droplets of all sizes, including those that can be inhaled, and contaminated objects.”
Several factors affect airborne infection risk, including:
Dispersion and dilution: Airborne virus particles become more diluted the farther they waft from the source and the more they mix with fresh air or pass through filters.
Dose and duration: Odds of infection increase with proximity to a source and time spent amid airborne virus particles. Exact thresholds are not known.
Breathing rate: Singing, shouting, or exercising all increase the number of viral particles exhaled by an infected person or inhaled by someone nearby.
A person who is exercising might expel or take in 20 times as many viral particles in a given time period as someone breathing normally, says Richard Corsi, PhD, an engineer at Portland State University who studies indoor air quality. “This is one of the reasons gyms are particularly risky environments.”
Back home, armed with that information, you’re ready to take a layered approach to the coronavirus capture and dispersion, with each of several tactics further reducing the risk of infection should someone bring the pandemic home.
Medium.***