Originally Posted by
etudiant
Except that this was three separate tables, just adjacent, no food sharing, so presumably aerosol transmission.
Indeed. I think we can know enough about the transmissibility of this virus, simply by observing the development of the outbreak in Wuhan and, on a smaller scale, the transmission among pax on the cruise ship now docked in Yokohama, to be pretty sure that close contact is not required. Depending upon the material and the specific virus (and temperature, etc.) various coronaviruses are known to survive on inanimate surfaces for periods between a few hours and 28 days. There's no reason to expect 2019-nCoV to be less persistent.
Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and its inactivation with biocidal agents