With the Covid alert level being reduced from 4 to 3 it is surely only a matter of days before the government announces that it is relaxing the two metre rule – a move for which the hospitality industry has been lobbying for heavily, warning that pubs and restaurants will not be able to reopen until it happens. Another sign of impending change came from Professor Calum Semple of the University of Liverpool, a member of the Sage committee, who told the Today programme this morning that he had changed his mind on the two metre rule and now believes that infection levels are low enough to make it safe.
But was there ever any scientific justification for the two metre rule? It is based on the presumption that Covid-19 is most likely spread via the heavier droplets emitted from the mouth and nose, and which are most likely to fall out of the air within two metres.
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