- A new study has looked at evaporation of respiratory droplets — specifically those that contain virus.
- When temperature is high and relative humidity is low simultaneously, the study found a significant reduction in virus viability.
- On the other hand, when RH is high, then the distance travelled by the droplet cloud, and the virus concentration remain significant — at any temperature.
- This, the study notes, is in contradiction with what was previously believed by many epidemiologists.
- The research took into account humidity, temperature, and wind speed.
- The researchers developed new theoretical correlations for the unsteady evaporation of coronavirus-contaminated saliva droplets.
- It introduced the thermodynamic properties of virions (the complete virus) as a liquid.
- The key finding is that evaporation is a critical factor for the transmission of the infectious particles immersed in respiratory clouds of saliva droplets.
