Multi-route respiratory infection: when a transmission route may dominate

Caroline X. Gao; Yuguo Li; Jianjian Wei; Sue Cotton; Matthew Hamilton; Lei Wang; Benjamin J Cowling

Cut-off size is also critical factor. WHO (26) employed 5 μm to divide airborne and large droplets, while Nicas et al. (42) adopted 10μm. The simulations by Xie et al. (43) and Wei and Li. (37) suggested that droplets with an initial diameter up to 60 μm could all disperse in a patient ward. In reality, the airborne ability of droplets or droplet nuclei may not be a simple cut-off value, and it depends on many other factors such as the background room air speed and its turbulence, thermal stratification and air distribution. Further studies are needed to model these factors to account for the long-range airborne transmission rate. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.