CDC Acknowledges Airborne Spread of SARS-CoV-2

Updated guidance on the CDC website states that the virus that causes COVID-19 can spread through small virus-containing respiratory droplets and particles that can remain suspended in the air over long distances and time periods. However, the guidance still maintains that most infections occur through close contact.

“[W]ere SARS-CoV-2 spread primarily through airborne transmission like measles, experts would expect to have observed considerably more rapid global spread of infection in early 2020 and higher percentages of prior infection measured by serosurveys,” the guidance reads. “Available data indicate[s] that SARS-CoV-2 has spread more like most other common respiratory viruses, primarily through respiratory droplet transmission within a short range (e.g., less than six feet). There is no evidence of efficient spread . . . to people far away or who enter a space hours after an infectious person was there.”

The guidance can be read in full on the CDC website.