--- title: CDC: COVID-19 Can Spread Indoors in Air Beyond 6 Feet description: The Centers for Disease Control acknowledged Monday that COVID-19 can sometimes be spread through small particles that can linger in the air. canonical: https://time.com/5896531/coronavirus-airborne-cdc/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-10-05T20:00:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T09:17:14.824Z article:section: Health og:title: CDC: COVID-19 Can Spread Indoors in Air Beyond 6 Feet og:description: But the agency still says it's more common for the virus to spread through close contact with an infected person og:url: https://time.com/5896531/coronavirus-airborne-cdc/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41669a4766fe52bd/698a12e2e76ad2310f6382ac/coronavirus-airborne-particles-cdc.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: CDC Chief Dr. Thomas Frieden Updates Media On Dallas Ebola Response og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: CDC: COVID-19 Can Spread Indoors in Air Beyond 6 Feet twitter:description: But the agency still says it's more common for the virus to spread through close contact with an infected person twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41669a4766fe52bd/698a12e2e76ad2310f6382ac/coronavirus-airborne-particles-cdc.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # CDC Acknowledges Threat of Indoor COVID-19 Spread Beyond 6 Feet > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=f8a6cd6a-468a-4d92-9e2d-9e3fd4fee5ca&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [John Tozzi / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## John Tozzi / Bloomberg Contributor Oct 5, 2020 8:00 PM UTC  Exterior of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) headquarters is seen on October 13, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. Exterior of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) headquarters is seen on October 13, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. Jessica McGowan—Getty Images by [John Tozzi / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## John Tozzi / Bloomberg Contributor Oct 5, 2020 8:00 PM UTC The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged Monday that the coronavirus can sometimes be spread through small particles that can linger in the air and infect people who are more than six feet away from an infectious person. The agency updated its [website](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/how-covid-spreads.html) on how Covid-19 spreads with the information and alerted reporters in a news release. The agency last month posted and then removed a guideline on airborne transmission, which it [later described as a draft posted in error](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-21/cdc-removes-guidance-about-airborne-virus-spread-from-website). “Today’s update acknowledges the existence of some published reports showing limited, uncommon circumstances where people with Covid-19 infected others who were more than 6 feet away or shortly after the Covid-19-positive person left an area,” the agency said in the release. The agency reiterated that it’s more common for the virus to spread through close contact with an infected person. The update Monday doesn’t change the CDC’s recommendations for how to protect against infection by wearing masks, staying six feet apart and washing hands. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5896531/coronavirus-airborne-cdc/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5896531/coronavirus-airborne-cdc/"},"headline":"CDC Acknowledges Threat of Indoor COVID-19 Spread Beyond 6 Feet","datePublished":"2020-10-05T20:00:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T09:17:14.824Z","description":"The agency reiterated that it’s more common for the virus to spread through close contact with an infected person","url":"https://time.com/5896531/coronavirus-airborne-cdc/","keywords":["COVID-19","wire"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41669a4766fe52bd/698a12e2e76ad2310f6382ac/coronavirus-airborne-particles-cdc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"John Tozzi / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41669a4766fe52bd/698a12e2e76ad2310f6382ac/coronavirus-airborne-particles-cdc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"CDC Chief Dr. Thomas Frieden Updates Media On Dallas Ebola Response","caption":"CDC Chief Dr. Thomas Frieden Updates Media On Dallas Ebola Response","creditText":"Jessica McGowan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/covid-19/","name":"COVID-19"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5896531/coronavirus-airborne-cdc/","name":"CDC Acknowledges Threat of Indoor COVID-19 Spread Beyond 6 Feet"}}]}] ```