Researchers analyze evaporation and propagation of respiratory droplets of COVID-19 patients
COVID-19 can be transmitted when an infected person talks, coughs, sneezes or sings, expelling virus-containing respiratory droplets that can reach the mouth, nose or eyes of previously uninfected people. These aqueous droplets tend to fall rapidly out of the air and evaporate on the floor or the ground, but some smaller droplets can evaporate before reaching the ground, leaving virus nuclei floating through the air.
Such infinitesimal aerosolized particles, or aerosols, can travel on air currents for hours and infect people, particularly when they spend prolonged periods of time in indoor settings that lack adequate ventilation. It is because transmission is possible via free-drifting aerosols that the coronavirus is referred to as an airborne disease.