Coronavirus: Social Distancing
(asked on 11th May 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the evidential basis is for the Government's policy of requiring two metres minimum distance for social distancing during the covid-19 outbreak; on what grounds the Government has not set that minimum distance at one metre as practised in other countries; and for what reasons that policy does not set different social distancing requirements for indoor and outdoor environments.
The main route for COVID-19 spread is via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks. COVID-19 may spread directly person-to-person or indirectly via droplet contamination of surfaces.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, Public Health England (PHE) adopted a more precautionary approach than the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) recommendation of maintaining a one metre distance between individuals. This included PHE publishing guidance on social distancing stating that people should maintain a distance of at least two metres, which is also advised by several other countries such as Canada and South Korea.
These precautionary measures were informed by the available evidence from a study on respiratory droplet characteristics and dispersion. This study estimated that droplets exhaled by coughing could have a potential range exceeding one metre; greater than the WHO’s recommended social distancing. Additionally, the study concluded that there was no difference in the dispersal of respiratory droplets between indoor and outdoor environments, and so PHE’s recommendations on social distancing remains the same for these environments. Further information is available at the following link: