COVID-19, with over 4 million cases is a scary disease and large scale pandemic. The numbers just keep on rising every day. As countries are beginning to amp up their efforts with strict stay-at-home orders. A lot remains to be decided about the future- the new normal, how we’ll use public transport, way we live or just go about eating at restaurants.
While social distancing and sanitation are the only two effective keys to curbing the crisis right now, the one major tension that remains at large is the silent transmission. People showing atypical symptoms, or not getting detected in time and spreading the infection is one of the prime reasons community transmission is on the rise and that is what also happened in hotbed districts- including the travelling ships and cruises which had to be quarantined because of the same.
Now, as a means to caution people and show just how fast the virus is capable of transmitted, a video has surfaced online which shows how SARS-CoV-2 can quickly spread through large gatherings and crowded places.
The video, which has now gone viral was conducted by a leading Japanese broadcaster. For the experiment, 10 participants were chosen in a buffet and asked to go about walking and contacting surfaces normally, as they would. Only 1 amongst the 10 were marked with fluorescent paint on his palm (to demonstrate how the virus works) so that the path tracing could be done.
30 minutes after the experiment, when people were done mingling around, the lights were switched off and researchers went on to show just how fast the green paint (ergo, the virus) could have potentially spread through the crowded buffet.
After the mingling and going around, 30 minutes after the experiment, the lights were turned off to map out the trace how fast the pain (ergo, acting as the virus) could potentially spread through the crowded buffet. The results were shocking, to say the least.
The researchers found that the paint had found their way on almost all persons present in the room as well as touching several items on the buffet table, implying that the virus, which spreads through respiratory droplets and frequent touching of surfaces could find a way to infect almost everyone.
The video was shared on social media and has been going viral ever since.
Experts are also saying that asymptomatic infections and rise in clusters may be one of the reasons why COVID-19 cases are on the rise again in parts of Asia, which had managed to contain the first wave of virus and have been slowly reopening cities, even with restrictions.