Public health officials in many countries may need to reconsider their safety guidelines which usually consist of social distancing and wearing a mask after the publication on Tuesday of the research paper in the journal Physics of Fluids.

Authors Talib Dbouk and Dimitris Drikakis, from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, found 2 metres was a safe approximate distance in still conditions, with droplets taking about 15 seconds to fall below human waist level. However, they found that “when a person coughs, the wind speed in an open space environment significantly influences the distance that airborne disease-carrier droplets travel”…