Empty grocery aisle? Watch what happens when someone coughs in the next aisle over

As coronavirus continues to spread, many are wondering if it’s still safe to go to the grocery store.

Supermarkets and other stores are issuing new guidelines and precautions to help keep employees and shoppers safe including one-way aisles, decals spaced six feet apart in check out lanes and daily fever checks for employees.

But are these enough?

Researchers at Aalto University in Finland, Finnish Meteorological Institute, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and University of Helsinki released a joint study Monday that analyzed how a cloud of tiny aerosolized particles produced when a person coughs, sneezes or talks moves through the air in an indoor space.

Preliminary results found that an aerosol cloud does travel outside the immediate vicinity of someone who coughs, but that the movement can take several minutes, according to the study.

“Someone infected by the coronavirus, can cough and walk away, but then leave behind extremely small aerosol particles carrying the coronavirus,” assistant professor Ville Vuorinen said in a news release. “These particles could then end up in the respiratory tract of others in the vicinity.”

Thirty researchers with specializations in “fluid dynamics, aerosol physics, social networks, ventilation, virology and biomedical engineering” used a supercomputer to create a 3D model for how the droplets move through and are preserved by the air.

The simulation shows a person standing in an aisle — like those found in a grocery store — and coughing. A dense cloud of particles emerges in front of the person then is wafted into the next aisle where another person is standing. The cloud ultimately begins to dissipate.

According to researchers, the simulation accounted for typical indoor ventilation and air flow. While the simulation video is under a minute long, researchers say that it takes up to several minutes for the cloud to spread and ultimately disperse.

Aalto University, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Finnish Meteorological Institute each modeled the scenario independently using the same starting conditions and all had the same result, the release said.

This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 8:46 AM with the headline "Empty grocery aisle? Watch what happens when someone coughs in the next aisle over."