27 feet MIT researcher says droplets carrying coronavirus can travel up to 27 feet Lydia Bourouiba, an associate professor at MIT, has researched the dynamics of exhalations (coughs and sneezes, for instance) for years at The Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory and found exhalations cause gaseous clouds that can travel up to 27 feet. Her research could have implications for the global COVID-19 pandemic, though measures called for by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization call for six and three feet of space, respectively CNN rate Coronavirus death rate is lower than previously reported, study says, but it's still deadlier than seasonal flu (CNN)How many people die after being infected with the novel coronavirus? Fewer than previously calculated, according to a study released Monday, but still more than die from the flu. The research, published in the medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, estimated that about 0.66% of those infected with the virus will die. That coronavirus death rate, which is lower than earlier estimates, takes into account potentially milder cases that often go undiagnosed -- but it's still far higher than the 0.1% of people who are killed by the flu. When undetected infections aren't taken into account, the Lancet study found that the coronavirus death rate was 1.38%, which is more consistent with earlier reports. Early in March, for example, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that "if you just do the math, the math is about 2%." But he emphasized that the number could go down, saying that "as a group it's going to depend completely on what the factor of asymptomatic cases are." That's because death rates typically only consider reported coronavirus cases, which tend to be more severe, and thus brought to the attention of health care workers. Asymptomatic cases -- or mild cases -- may not always be counted.

feces COVID-19 found in sputum and feces samples after pharyngeal swabs are negative Clinicians from the Institute of Infectious Diseases at Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University found that some patients had positive real-time fluorescence polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results for SARS-CoV-2 in the sputum or feces after the pharyngeal swabs became negative. Pharyngeal swabs are widely used to determine the appropriateness for a patient’s discharge from the hospital and/or whether isolation continues to be required. These findings raise concerns over whether patients with negative pharyngeal swabs are truly virus-free or if sampling of additional body sites might be needed. Ontario rate Suspected, confirmed COVID-19 patients filling roughly 1 in 4 Ontario ICU beds Data obtained by CBC reveals 434 patients confirmed or suspected to have virus More than 430 patients in Ontario hospital intensive care beds have either tested positive for COVID-19 or are suspected to have the coronavirus, a far higher number than officials have revealed. CBC News has obtained copies of COVID-19 reports issued daily by Critical Care Services Ontario, a branch of the Ministry of Health. The reports feature more detail than has previously been made public about the impact the virus is having on hospital ICUs. The latest report, from Saturday, shows 92 patients in critical care wards have been confirmed positive for COVID-19, while another 342 ICU patients are considered "suspected" cases. Patients are classified as suspected cases when they have a fever or cough, and have either travelled to an area affected by COVID-19 or have been in close contact with a confirmed or probable case of the coronavirus but their lab tests are unavailable.