Washington D.C: The current social distancing guideline of 6 feet maybe insufficient according to a recent study as saliva droplets can travel 18 feet in five seconds at low wind speeds.
Airborne transmission of viruses, like the virus causing COVID-19, is not well understood, but a good baseline for the study is a deeper understanding of how particles travel through the air when people cough.

In a paper published in Physics of Fluids, from AIP Publishing, Talib Dbouk and Dimitris Drikakis discovered that a mild cough occurring in low wind speeds of 4-15 kph can propel saliva droplets 18 feet.

“The droplet cloud will affect both adults and children of different heights. Shorter adults and children could be at higher risk if they are located within the trajectory of the travelling saliva droplets.” Drikakis said…