JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS

Why Japan won't say the coronavirus is transmissible over long distances

For a long time after the pandemic began, the health ministry had listed only inhalation of droplets or fomite transmission via direct contact with an infected person's eye, nose or mouth as possible reasons for coronavirus infections. | REUTERS

By Osamu Tsukimori
Staff writer

Nov 8, 2021

Is the coronavirus an airborne pathogen or not?

While Japan and many other countries have shaped their policies based on the premise that the virus can be transmitted by heavy droplets at close range, questions remain over how far those droplets can travel to infect others and whether or not smaller, more mobile droplets can spread the virus.

Nearly two years since the first COVID-19 cases were reported in Wuhan, China, there is a growing consensus among the world's scientists that the virus that causes the deadly disease is more airborne than many originally thought.

Why Japan won't say the coronavirus is transmissible over long distances

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