What We Know (and Don’t) About Catching Covid-19 Outdoors
Everyone says outdoors is safer. Here’s why.
While cases of Covid-19 surge to new highs nationwide, responsible outdoor activities are being encouraged. From California to New York, states and cities are shutting down indoor dining (or keeping it closed) while allowing outdoor service and keeping beaches and parks open, too. Governors are coming around to the view that scientists have been espousing for months: The coronavirus transmits more easily indoors than outdoors.
“The risk is definitely lower outdoors,” says Kimberly Prather, PhD, an atmospheric chemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “The primary reason is there’s just such a large volume of clean air.”
Imagine a tablespoon of saltwater dispersing in a bucket of fresh water versus in a small glass of water, she suggests. Sunlight has also been shown to kill the coronavirus, she says, although the effect takes a few minutes.
However, outdoors is not totally safe, and images of crowded beaches and maskless pool parties over the Fourth of July weekend have health experts worried that already skyrocketing infection rates will just get worse. After all, an infected person’s coronavirus-laden respiratory exhalations don’t always obey the six-foot rule.
