A new study new study has shown that the airborne transmission of Covid-19 is highly random and suggests that social distancing alone is not effective in controlling its spread, reiterating the importance of vaccination and face masks.

“One part of the way that this disease spreads is virology: how much virus you have in your body, how many viral particles you expel when you speak or cough,” said Dr Shrey Trivedi, the Indian-origin first author of the study published in the journal ‘Physics of Fluids’ this week.

“But another part of it is fluid mechanics: what happens to the droplets once they’re expelled, which is where we come in. As fluid mechanics specialists, we like the bridge from virology of the emitter to the virology of the receiver and we can help with risk assessment,” explained Trivedi from the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge.

As per reports, France is expected to announce that Covid-19 booster shots will be made available to all adults, as well as stricter rules on wearing face masks and more stringent health pass checks to curb a new wave of infections.

President Emmanuel Macron’s government on Wednesday said it would focus on tougher social distancing rules and a faster booster shot programme and that it wanted to avoid the lockdowns being imposed once more by some other European countries.

According to a study conducted in Spain, long-term exposure to air pollution is associated with an increased risk of developing Covid-19 among people who get infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The research, published in the journal Environment Health Perspectives on Wednesday, provides further evidence on the health benefits of reducing air pollution, and highlights the influence of environmental factors on infectious diseases.

“The problem is that previous studies were based on reported cases, which had been diagnosed, but missed all the asymptomatic or undiagnosed cases,” said study first-author Manolis Kogevinas from Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal) in Spain.