Jahnavi Sarma
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COVID-19 infection can spread within 5 minutes to 50 minutes depending on the environment in which the droplets are released and how one inhales them.
The COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease. No wonder, it has spread across the world with such speed in a short span of time. Experts have long detailed the mode of transmission of this disease, which is by droplets released in the air when a person with the infection coughs or sneezes. You get the infection if you breath in the virus particles or if you touch any contaminated surface and then touch your mouth, nose and eyes with your hands. That is why there is so much stress on maintaining proper hygiene, social distancing and frequent washing of hands.
Now according to an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, the COVID-19 infection can spread within 5 minutes to 50 minutes depending on the environment in which the droplets are released and how one inhales them.
According to Professor Erin's analysis, a single cough releases about 3,000 droplets. Most of these respiratory droplets drop to the ground but many stay suspended in air. If a person is exposed to an infected person for just 10 minutes in a face to face situation, spread of infection is possible. Sharing a space with an infected person, for example, in an office, for a longer period of time also increases risk of infection. Sneezes and coughs of such infected people can infect a whole room of people. That is why, he says, it becomes mandatory for symptomatic and also asymptomatic people to stay home.
Erin gave an insight into how fast a person can get infected from the virus. In his analysis, Erin talks about a formula: Successful Infection = Exposure to Virus x Time. This formula shows that a successful infection depends upon the exposure to a number of virus particles for a particular period of time. Though he admits that this still needs to be determined experimentally, he states that the number can demonstrate how infection can occur.
According to many studies, as few as 1000 SARS-CoV2 infectious viral particles are needed to get someone infected. The professor states that infection may occur through 1000 infectious viral particles that one may receive in one breath or from one eye-rub, or 100 viral particles inhaled with each breath over 10 breaths, or 10 viral particles with 100 breaths. Each of these situations can lead to an infection.
Droplets through cough can travel at 50 miles per hour. This means that the airborne droplets can travel across the room in just a few seconds. Similarly, a single sneeze releases about 30,000 droplets. Most of these droplets are small and can travel easily across a room at 200 miles per hour. The droplets in a single cough or sneeze of an infected person may contain as many as 20,00,00,000 virus particles. It can be dispersed in the environment around them.
During a face-to-face conversation with an infected person, if he sneezes or coughs, it is quite possible that you may inhale 1000 virus particles easily and get infected. Even in case of indirect cough or sneeze, the smallest of infectious droplets can still fill the room. If you enter the room within a few minutes, you may receive enough virus through a few breaths for infection to set in.
One breath can release 50-5000 droplets. According to many experts, influenza can release up to 33 infectious viral particles per minute. But for SARS-CoV2, Professor Erin kept the number at 20. If every viral particle is inhaled, which is very unlikely, it will take 50 minutes for you to catch the infection.
Speaking too increases the release of respiratory droplets by about 10-fold. This means 200 virus particles per minute. So, if you are talking face to face with an infected person, and you inhale every viral particle, just 5 minutes of conversation is enough to give you the disease.
(With inputs from Agencies)