The World Health Organisation (WHO) had last month acknowledged that there is "evidence emerging" which shows that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus might be spreading 'airborne', leading to a whole new timorous dimension to the raging coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak.
Now, a new study by a group of researchers at the University of Nebraska in the US has shed light on disturbing potentials of the airborne coronavirus, which suggests that it may turn out to be far more infectious than earlier assumed.
It is already known that coronavirus can prove to be far more dangerous when lingering in smaller respiratory particles in the air (microdroplets) and infect people. But now, the study has shown for the first time that SARS-CoV-2 taken from microdroplets, defined as under five microns, can replicate in lab conditions.
This exacerbates a fear that researchers had already been having for a while, the hypothesis that that normal speaking and breathing, not just coughing and sneezing, are responsible for spreading COVID-19 -- and that infectious doses of the virus can travel distances far greater than the six feet (two meters) urged by social distancing guidelines.
The results are still considered preliminary and have not yet appeared in a peer-reviewed journal, however, if proved true, it would suggest that there is no real use to social distancing guidelines since the virus will in any case travel far greater distances than six feet.
The development regarding the study was posted by news agency AFP, which also reported that a study by the same team in March had shown that the virus remains airborne in the rooms of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
Notably, WHO had earlier confidently claimed that the coronavirus does not spread airborne, although it had admitted on several counts that there has been a reported possibility of aerosol transmission in a relatively closed environment with prolonged exposure like ICUs-CCUs in hospitals, however more tepid data analysis is needed to understand this.
"Based on the information received so far and on our experience with other coronaviruses, COVID-19 appears to mostly spread through respiratory droplets (for instance when a sick person coughs) and close contact. This is why the WHO recommends hands and respiratory hygiene," Dr. Poonam Khetarpal Singh, Regional Director of WHO Southeast Asia, had said earlier.
However, last month, a group of 239 scientists in 32 countries had penned an open letter to the Geneva-based agency, outlining evidence that they say shos floating virus particles can infect people who breathe them in.
(Inputs from World Health Organisation)
