NEW YORK:  Small coronavirus respiratory particles can stay moist and airborne for longer periods of time and travel farther than scientists previously thought. Droplets wrapped in mucus could stay moist for up to 30 minutes and travel up to 200 feet, according to scientists at the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

"There have been cases of persons contracting a coronavirus while downwind of an infected person or in a room several minutes after an infected person has left that room," said Leonard Pease, the study's corresponding author. "The assumption that encapsulated virions can stay hydrated and so completely infective over long distances is supported by real-world evidence. Maybe infectious respiratory droplets last longer than we thought "Pease went on to say. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer reported the study's findings.

The researchers looked at the mucus that envelopes the respiratory droplets that humans expel. Mucus helps many viruses to move further than they would otherwise, allowing them to spread from one person to another, according to scientists.

The conventional wisdom has long held that very small, aerosolized droplets of a few microns, such as those produced in the lungs, dry out practically rapidly in air and become harmless. However, the team found that mucus alters the equation.

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