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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2020 | Volume
: 11
| Issue : 1 | Page : 89 |
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Spray Coverage of Droplets: A Medical Biomechanics Analysis and Implication in COVID-19 Prevention
Beuy Joob1, Viroj Wiwanitkit2
1 Sanitation Medical Academic Center, Bangkok, Thailand
2 Dr. DY Patil University, Pune, India; Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
| Date of Submission | 12-Apr-2020 |
| Date of Acceptance | 08-May-2020 |
| Date of Web Publication | 09-Jul-2020 |
Correspondence Address:
Beuy Joob
Sanitation Medical Academic Center, Bangkok
Thailand
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_186_20
How to cite this article:
Joob B, Wiwanitkit V. Spray Coverage of Droplets: A Medical Biomechanics Analysis and Implication in COVID-19 Prevention. Int J Prev Med 2020;11:89 |
Dear Editor,
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is an important global public health problem at present. The disease can easily get transmitted from person to person and causes a wide scale of the outbreak. The secretion of droplets from an infected patient is the main vehicle carrying pathogens to the others.[1] The appropriate distancing is required for the preventive purpose.[2] The study on the movement of droplets in an indoor environment is interesting and can give useful data for disease prevention. In a previous report by Xie et al., droplets of various sizes can move at different distances.[3] Averagely, the large droplet from breathing can move at a distance before falling and the droplet expelled by sneezing or coughing can move more than 2 m [Table 1].[3]
Nevertheless, the explanation by the evaporation-falling concept mainly gives a one-dimensional distance. Additional data on area coverage by droplets are necessary for planning the prevention of disease. Here, the authors use a medical biomechanics analysis to estimate spray coverage which implies disease spreading area of droplets. The online engineering tool, spray coverage calculator (https://www.spray.com/Resources/SprayWare-Calculators-and-Tools/Spray-Coverage -Calculator), was used for estimation.
According to the analysis, the spray coverage of droplets due to breathing, coughing, or sneezing are shown in [Table 1]. Based on this data, the infectious droplets can easily cover any closed room. For prevention of disease, the very long distancing, ranging 2–12 m, is required.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Singhal T. A Review of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Indian J Pediatr 2020;87:281-6.  |
| 2. | Stein RA. COVID-19 and rationally layered social distancing. Int J Clin Pract 2020:e13501. doi: 10.1111/ijcp. 13501. |
| 3. | Xie X, Li Y, Chwang AT, Ho PL, Seto WH. How far droplets can move in indoor environments--Revisiting the Wells evaporation-falling curve. Indoor Air 2007;17:211-25. |
[Table 1]
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