With more than 73,000 people confirmed with COVID-19 infection as of Feb. 18, and nearly 2,000 deaths around the world, questions about how the virus spreads are becoming more urgent.
Here’s what you should remember: COVID-19 spreads when the virus responsible for the disease, SARS-CoV-2, a coronavirus, is transmitted by one person to another in respiratory droplets. That means the virus can spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes and releases these droplets into the air, where they are either inhaled by others, or can land on other people’s mouths or noses if they’re near enough—generally a distance of about six feet (1.8 meters). Once the virus finds itself inside a new human host, it can start infecting cells and cause disease.
