Coronavirus Found in Air Samples Up to 13 Feet From Patients

AFP Online (April 10) cites a new study by Chinese scientists, which found that the coronavirus can travel up to 13 feet — more than double the distance current guidelines say people should leave between themselves in public. Led by a team at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing, the researchers examined air and surface samples from hospital wards with COVID-19 patients in Wuhan. Their preliminary results were published late last week in Emerging Infectious Diseases , a journal of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They add to a growing debate on how the virus is transmitted, with the scientists themselves warning that the small quantities of disease they found at the 13-foot distance are not necessarily infectious.