Airborne Coronavirus Particles May Travel Farther Than Thought: Lab Study

The research, published in the journal International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, took a long look at the mucus that coats the respiratory droplets that people spew from their lungs.

Small coronavirus respiratory particles may remain moist and airborne for a longer time and travel to greater distance than previously thought, a study conducted in a laboratory suggests.

The research, published in the journal International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, took a long look at the mucus that coats the respiratory droplets that people spew from their lungs.

The researchers from the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) noted that mucus allows many viruses to travel further than they otherwise would, enabling them to journey from one person to another.

Conventional wisdom has been that very small, aerosolised droplets of just a few microns, like those produced in the lungs, dry out in air almost instantly, becoming harmless.