The coronavirus's impact varies on the time spent indoors and outdoors while droplets are the real danger in human-to-human transmission. A casual chat can further aggravate the risk.
About 10 minutes of conversation outdoors and four minutes of chat indoors can seriously increase the risk, Professor Ateş Kara, a member of the Health Ministry's Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board, said.
Kara warned that the risk factor is not affected even if "social distancing" of 1 meter is maintained.
"Being outdoors is certainly an advantage as people can adhere to social distancing more while sunlight's ultraviolet rays block transmissions better. Yet, as winter approaches, more people are clustered in closed spaces, giving a fertile ground for the virus to spread," he said.
Kara added that it is of utmost importance to wear masks properly. "The virus will hit harder if we leave our masks loose. This is what we see in Europe and it is safe to say that Turkey faces the same risk. Wearing masks and adhering to social distancing is key at this stage," he told Anadolu Agency (AA).
He pointed out that public compliance with mandatory mask measures was good in cities like Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Antalya, but this was not the case across the country. "The number of new patients is related to public compliance with the rules. If more people wear masks, the numbers drop rapidly," said Kara.
