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We are made aware that the primary transmission method of the infection from person to person is via droplets sneezed and coughed by an infected individual. Up to 3,000 droplets can be released with a single cough, whereas up to 10,000 through a sneeze.

Then the droplets drop in or breathe in the lungs of another person or fall onto an area touched by a non-infected individual, who will then touch the face -in particular their mouth, nose, ears or eyes.

This distributing process is called the "droplet spread" method. Whilst the coronavirus is present in such particles, it only lingers in air for a short amount of time and travels in a limited distance before being completely taken down by Earth's gravity after it has been coughed or sneezed out.

No matter how long the droplets are in the air, someone can breathe on it and then get contaminated even as far as within two meters of the cough or sneeze. A continuous sneeze droplet can fly about 60 meters, however the majority of the droplets are most likely caught in tissues.

There is currently an investigation of how long the virus can thrive in the air outside a human host. Several research placed it in just a couple of seconds according to a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, whilst another claims two to three hours.

If the virus enters the air, it is then referred to as an "aerosol". Within very small water droplets- smaller than those sneezed or coughed, the virus stays trapped in the air even long after larger droplets have dropped to objects, or been breathed into. 

Based on some growing research evidence in the same journal released this week by researchers at Princeton University, UCLA and US Research Agency, the National Institutes of Health (NIH)- that although not in significant quantities, the virus could also linger in the air through much smaller droplets.

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COVID-19 are known to be particularly versatile in regards to how long they can thrive without a host body to live in. A research released by the NIH last week reveals that the disease may endure in cardboard for 24 hours and in stainless steel for up to three days under favorable conditions.

The primary reason it lasts longer on ground than that in air is essentially gravitational force as it falls down from the air and that it does not linger in the air all the time permanently.

The coronavirus spread has been swift and violent, forcing us to consider carefully how we socialize, how we tidy up the surface areas and cutlery and to consider whether it is time to completely separate ourselves from the external world altogether if this pandemic arises.

Most of this new coronavirus disease has yet to be discovered, but this can be tackled by proper hygiene precautions in any way it is transmitted. Once it relates to the war on COVID-19, hand washing and disinfecting objects probably be the best methods in this battle.