Can you really catch it from a fleeting meeting in the outdoors?

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Dont get me wrong, I shall follow all the instructions, which as I understand it allow going outside with people from your household but parks have been closed here today. People taking trying to make the best of things and enjoy some sunshine have apparently not been practicing social distancing.

Is passing someone on a footpath really a risk? It seems unlikely to me that any illness can be transmitted like that.

It's possible yes, because it's passes through droplets in the air, from coughs, sneezes, even talking or laughing. It's extremely contagious.

This virus is unusually easy to pass from one person to another. You may have not had contact walking past them but if you then open a gate that they have opened the contact has happened.
This is why it is spreading so quickly. Most people are not used to worrying about what they are touching and who else may have touched it.

Short answer is yes you can. Not very probable but possible. And, of course, the more people you pass the more the likelihood of catching it.

My family were planning to walk today. Yesterday I started with symptoms so obviously we haven't. But the day before I felt absolutely fine.

Basically yes, it’s possible (appears to have happened)

As people simply will not be told that going for solo walks/runs whilst keeping long distances between people is not the green light to gather in groups (including for exercise), places will have to keep closing

It is spread by people coughing and sneezing over you, or coughing and sneezing or touching a thing that you then touch and then touch your face.

If people keep the 2m away and don't touch things and do not touch their faces they will not get it.

It's not as easy to spread as eg measles.

Ok, far enough. So those supermarket queues really are risky and no one's closing those down.

I think this is what people are struggling with. So many mixed messages.

I think it's more likely the instructions about outdoor exercise are so strict because it's easier for people to understand - or should be. There was a photo on the local FB group today of a group of men playing rugby or football in the local park this afternoon, all huddled together.

Not as easy as chickenpox either. That's got an R0 of 10-12. I can attest that when my kids caught it, it was completely out of the blue and we had no idea who they'd caught it from.

It's not really a mixed message, just a bad practice. My friend's locked down in Italy. At the checkouts there they have tape to keep people queuing 2m apart, and only a few people are allowed into the shop at any one time.

If you want to walk choose the least well used route you know and one where you can stand well off the path if you pass someone. Woodlands are good for this or padtureland where the route us not fenced.

It will be a real shame if this weekend means the opportunity to get outside is removed altogether.

Lots of circumstances coming together to have more people out than usual, an unusually nice day, mothers' day, families who had already made plans to meet up in restaurants finding something else to do and of course everything else being closed. People have tried to do the right thing just too many of them at once!

The last I read it's not thought to be airborne, like many other common viruses. So you actually have to have physical contact with bodily fluids - as PP said, with someone either sneezing or coughing on you (I guess them speaking up close to you would count too) or else them transferring said fluids onto a surface which you then touch and transfer to your face.

So indoors or outdoors, if you stay a good 1-2m away from people and wash your hands after touching a surface others might have touched before you, you'll be massively increasing your odds of not catching it. Obivously its easier, in general, to do all of this outdoors than in.

It’s airborne, in plumes, from breathe, that’s why we are social distancing at 1.5 meters + so we are not breathing each other’s breath / virus plumes

If they cough in your face yes. If they cough in their hands and touch you then you touch your face. Yes.

You don’t have to cough in each faces !!
It’s from general breathing that the respiratory tract will shed virus and you breath it out

Less likely than if you're closer to them for longer, but why would you want to risk it??? This is what I don't get with people, low risk does not mean no risk. Why not minimise it as much as you can?

I think messages are a little mixed too OP. I feel there's a fair bit of you can do this, but change it slightly and that's wrong etc . BoJo and his team were actively encouraging children going on a cycle ride with a friend the other day, as long as there is space between people etc. Yet two days on those children are seen as nasty pieces of work ( I live by a large popular open space and it's all over Facebook)

Personally we're erring on the side of caution. Generally staying at home, just leaving to walk the dog round the block. I'm Asthmatic so feeling a bit anxious about it all.

Current advice is that vulnerable people should stay at home but there is different advice for others, which does allow a walk in the park/bikeride under certain conditions.

Even that has only been the case since Friday evening. Schools and pubs were open on Friday! People will naturally need some time to digest it all.

I'm definitely staying inside now. I went for a walk early this morning, streets were almost empty but going round a corner I met a panting jogger coming the other way and didn't have time to move aside when we passed. Now I'm just hoping she hasn't got it!

As others have said, yes, although less likely. We will be using the very under used woods for walks rather than the beautiful park just down the road. I expect that one is packed.

We've been out walking around the very quiet streets today because yesterday we walked around our nearest bit of countryside and there were so many people walking in big groups we abandoned our walk and cut through a field home.

OP, have a google of R0 (R nought) values, very interesting. It's not exceptionally contagious compared to other diseases (measles for example), just slightly more contagious than seasonal flu. It is of course a dangerous infection and the fact that it is droplet borne is quite worrying.

Op it will be a real shame if the virus gets passed on to a vulnerable person and they end up in icu. There will be many more sunny days to take advantage of!

Well our scientists didn't want to cancel Cheltenham races because they felt there was minimal chance of catching it outside.

They didn't feel being out in the open in more spread out fresh air venues would be an issue.

Personally I can see the issue with the races! Queuing for loos, drinks, food, turn styles, bookies etc!

However peoples spread out in parks, I can't see the issue with.
But people are stupid.
I realised today I had not got a fire blanket. I ran out to get one and I saw a lady coughing over paint.

Right over the paint.

Then other people very slowly walking like reading lists and stopping by me.

I was darting and moving out of the way of people who didn't seem interested at all to stay away..

There was a case in China where they traced the only contact someone had had with a confirmed case.

They stood next to each other at an open air market for around 15 seconds(!)