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 Using global rates of new infections with the pandemic disease,
coupled with estimations of viral load, Bath University maths expert
Kit Yates worked out there are around two quintillion - or two
billion billion - SARS-CoV-2 virus particles in the world at any one
time.
Detailing the steps in his calculations, Yates said he used the
diameter of SARS-CoV-2 - at an average of about 100 nanometers, or
100 billionths of a meter - and then figured out the volume of the
spherical virus.
Even accounting for the coronavirus' projecting spike proteins and
the fact that the spherical particles will leave gaps when stacked
together, the total is still less than in a single 330 millilitre
(ml) cola can, he said.
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 "It's astonishing to think that
all the trouble, the disruption, the hardship
and the loss of life that has resulted over the
last year could constitute just a few
mouthfuls," Yates said in a statement.
More than 2.34 million people have died in the
COVID-19 pandemic so far, and there have been
almost 107 million confirmed cases worldwide.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Alexandra
Hudson)
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