Two-metre COVID-19 rule is 'arbitrary measurement' of safety ► FINCHANNEL finchannel.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from finchannel.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A new study has shown that the airborne transmission of COVID-19 is highly random and suggests that the two-meter rule was a number chosen from a risk 'continuum', rather than any concrete measurement of safety.
Researchers have developed a new online tool that can calculate the risk of COVID-19 transmission in poorly-ventilated places, showing that when two people are in such spaces and neither is wearing a mask, prolonged talking is far more likely to spread the novel coronavirus than a short cough. The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A, also shows that the virus spreads further than two meters in seconds in poorly-ventilated spaces. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London in the UK, noted that when speaking, we exhale smaller droplets, or aerosols, which spread easily around a room, and accumulate if ventilation is not adequate.