<\/p>\n
Latest Prevention & Wellness News<\/h3>\n
\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
![\"News](\"https:\/\/media.healthday.com\/Images\/icimages\/homemade_mask462.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
FRIDAY, Oct. 23, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
A cough<\/a> could spread a cloud of COVID-19<\/a> throughout a room, but a face mask can greatly shrink the size and spread of that cloud, a new study finds.<\/p>\n In fact, the volume of the cloud without a mask is about seven times larger than with a surgical mask and 23 times larger than with an N95 mask, the researchers found.<\/p>\n “We found that anything that reduces the distance traveled by the cloud, such as a mask, handkerchief, or coughing<\/a> into an elbow, should greatly reduce the region over which the droplets disperse upon coughing<\/a>, and therefore the chances of infection,” said researcher Rajneesh Bhardwaj, from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, in Mumbai.<\/p>\n Using jet theory and data from the literature, Bhardwaj and colleague Amit Agrawal found the first 5 to 8 seconds after coughing is critical for suspending droplets in the air and the spread of the disease. After that, the cough<\/a> cloud starts to break up.<\/p>\n The study findings helped the researchers develop a formula to determine the maximum number of people that can be in a hospital ward, and the rate at which air in a room, elevator, movie theater, car, plane cabin or restaurant needs to be circulated to keep the air fresh and reduce the odds of infection.<\/p>\n The report was published online Oct. 20 in the journal Physics of Fluids<\/i>.<\/p>\n “We estimate this volume of the air, which may help to design ventilation of closed spaces and consequently reduce the spread of the disease,” Agrawal said in a news release from the American Institute of Physics.<\/p>\n — Steven Reinberg<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
Copyright \u00a9 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n