Study shows passengers traveling in seats directly adjacent to an infected patient suffered the highest transmission rate, with an average 3.5% becoming infected with Covid-19. To answer this question, researchers at Southampton University in the United Kingdom carried out a study in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China Academy of Electronics and Information Sciences, and the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study’s authors found that for passengers seated less than three rows and five columns from an infected person, between 0 and 10.3% caught the virus.Transmission risk increases according to seat proximity “Our study shows that although there is an increased risk of Covid-19 transmission on trains, a person’s seat location and travel time in relation to an infectious person can make a big difference as to whether it is passed on.