Coronavirus can travel farther and faster inside restaurants than previously thought, South Korean s

[Roland99]

Coronavirus can travel farther and faster inside restaurants than previously thought, South Korean study suggests
https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2020/12/11/korean-restaurant-coronavirus-airflow-study/

Using the available data, including the sequencing of the viral genome isolated from infected diners, the Korean authors were able to pinpoint the location where they think diner A (a high school student who had not traveled outside her hometown of Jeonju, South Korea) was originally infected on June 12. It was at a first-floor restaurant in Jeonju, where there had not been a coronavirus infection in the two months preceding this case, according to a recent Los Angeles Times story. The restaurant has no windows or ventilation system, but has two ceiling air conditioners that circulated air in the direction of the two diners (A and C) who were then infected from diner B (a door-to-door saleswoman visiting from another town, according to the L.A. Times).

The high school student and her companion entered the restaurant at 4 p.m. and finished their meals before the saleswoman and her friend entered the establishment at 5:15 p.m. The two groups were seated about 21 feet apart in the restaurant, or more than three times the recommended spacing between tables in the United States. The student left the restaurant five minutes after the saleswoman entered. The student and the saleswoman had no interactions inside the restaurant, the study notes.

Diner C entered the restaurant at 5:22 with two companions. They were seated nearly 16 feet from the infected saleswoman. The two groups of diners overlapped for 21 minutes before the saleswoman and her guest left. The authors suggest the high school student and diner C were infected — and not their companions — because they directly faced the air flow circulated from the saleswoman’s table. Other customers outside the air flow from the saleswoman’s table also escaped without contracting the virus, even though they had spent more time in the restaurant with the infected diner.

Understanding the role that air flow plays in transporting droplets and aerosols large enough to infect others is important, scientists say. But such research also reinforces the randomness of infection as well as the limitations of the current protections that people use to keep themselves safe.

do NOT get complacent! Limit your exposure in small, enclosed spaces! and WEAR YOUR MASK

[Blues Heron]

1. Ask yourself if you knew someone was positive

would you eat in the same room they were eating in even if they were more than six feet away? Of course you wouldn't - don't risk it!

[Hugin]

2. K&R

Amazing case forensics and tracing.

[Roland99]

3. SK and the US had the first confirmed case on the same date

Yet the US has daily deaths equal to 4-5x the number of TOTAL deaths in SK

[ms liberty]

4. This is fascinating. n/t