This graphic attempts to simulate the trajectories of aerosol clouds and respiratory droplets expelled from an infected person to a susceptible host, and the ways that various safeguards affect the amount of viral particles transmitted to the host. 

Aerosol and Droplet Transmission From An Infected Person to a Susceptible Host 

The trajectories of aerosols in the three events:

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- Medical procedures

- Fast-running tap water and toilet flushes

- Sneezing, coughing, exhaling

- Droplet nuclei suspended in air due to evaporation of droplets


Sources of Transmission by Aerosols

•   Direct spray of large droplets onto conjunctiva/other mucous
     membranes via talking, coughing, sneezing, etc.  
•  Touching fomites (infected surfaces of inanimate objects)


Sources of Transmission by Droplets 

Jayaweera, M., Perera, H., Gunawardana, B., & Manatunge, J. (2020). Transmission of COVID-19 virus by droplets and aerosols: A critical review on the unresolved dichotomy. Environmental Research, 188, 109819. Advance online publication.

doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109819

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7293495/

Transmission of COVID-19 virus by droplets and aerosols: A critical review on the unresolved dichotomy

Examples of medical procedures that cause aerosol transmission:
- endotracheal intubation

- bronchoscopy

- open suctioning

- administration of nebulized treatment
 
- manual ventilation before intubation

- turning the patient to the prone position

- disconnecting the patient from the ventilator

- non-invasive positive-pressure ventilation

- tracheotomy

- cardiopulmonary resuscitation


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