London, Dec 5, : At a distance of two metres, it takes less that five minutes for an unvaccinated person to infect a person with Covid-19.A study found that both people are at a lower risk if they wear well-fitting medical masks.A team from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation in Gottingen found that the maximum risk of infection after 20 mins is very low if both the infected and non-infected wear well-fitting masks.This even applies to people who live at the closest distance.
The likelihood of infection rises to around four percent if their masks are not properly fitted.The virus can be transmitted in 20 minutes if both are wearing well-fitting medical masks.
A maximum probability of 10 percent is achieved if the masks fit properly.
The study confirms the intuitive conclusion that effective protection against infection requires a mask.
The mask should be as tight as possible to the face and filter as much as possible.
Eberhard Bodenschatz (Director at the Max Planck) stated that “we would not have believed that at a distance a few metres it would take so much time for the infectious dose from the breath of virus carriers to be absorbed.”
The breathing air has already formed a cone-shaped shape in the air at this distance; the infectious particles are also diluted.The virus-rich, particularly large particles also fall to the ground within a very short distance.
Bodenschatz stated that “in our study, we found that the risk for infection without wearing masks was enormously high after just a few minutes, even at distances of three metres,”
These encounters are not uncommon in schools, restaurants and clubs, or outdoors.
The team also noted that droplets that people release when they breathe in or speak dry become lighter.
This means they stay in the air longer, but also have a higher virus concentration because of the smaller droplets that are released.Inhaled particles will do the opposite: they absorb water again, grow like drops in a cloud, and deposit more easily into the respiratory tract.
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