Impact of respiratory aerosol size and number distribution on the relative importance of different routes in SARS-CoV-2 transmission

Exploring the relative importance of different routes in SARS-CoV-2 transmission is crucial in infection prevention. However, even in the same environmental setting, the relative importance of different routes has varied in different studies. We hypothesize that respiratory aerosol size and number distribution might play a key role. In this study, size and number distribution of respiratory droplets emitted from breathing, talking, and coughing were identified from PubMed and Web of Science. The infection risk of SARS-CoV-2 via airborne, droplet, and fomite transmission routes was modeled in a household and a healthcare setting. The relative importance of three routes varied with different size distributions in both settings. Generally, the contribution of the airborne route increased with the volume percentage of respirable droplets emitted. And the increase of the total number of emitted droplets leads to an increase in the contribution of tdroplet route. In the healthcare setting, as the total number of emitted droplets increased from 110 to 4,973, the contribution of droplet route increased from 62.24% to 98.11%. Next, by considering the combination of breathing, coughing, and talking when the infected person was asymptomatic, the airborne route predominated over the droplet and contact routes. When the infected person had developed symptoms, that is, cough, the droplet route played a dominant role in SARS-CoV-2 transmission. In conclusion, risk analyses will be improved with improved sampling methods that enable characterization of viruses within respiratory droplets of different sizes.

Automated summary

The size and number distribution of respiratory droplets emitted from breathing, talking, and coughing have a significant impact on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The relative importance of airborne, droplet, and fomite transmission routes varies in different settings. In asymptomatic individuals, the airborne route predominates.