Risk of Secondary COVID-19 Transmission Low in Most Settings
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The risk of secondary transmission is never any longer as a lot as 4% total among shut contacts of of us identified with COVID-19 and varies by settings and illness severity, contemporary study reveals.
Lei Luo, PhD, with the Guangzhou Heart for Illness Sustain watch over and Prevention, China, and colleagues feeble contract tracing to take a look at 3410 shut contacts of 391 COVID-19 index instances between January and March in Guangzhou.
Researchers identified instances by surveillance making an try out, screening symptomatic sufferers who supplied to a healthcare facility, or tracing and screening of us in shut contact with these identified with COVID-19.
Among the many shut contacts, 127 (3.7%) grew to turn out to be infected. Of these 127, eight (6.3%) had been asymptomatic. Of the 119 symptomatic instances, 20 (16.8%) had been light, 87 (73.1%) had been moderate, and 12 (10.1%) had been excessive or serious.
The findings had been published on-line August 13 in the Annals of Inner Medication.
To study the most realistic doubtless map risk diversified by contact locations, they stratified contacts in step with the build they interacted with the index patient, including family, public transportation, health care settings, leisure venues or workplaces, and extra than one settings.
Dangers for secondary an infection had been most realistic for family contacts, at 10.3% (95% CI, 8.5% – 12.2%), followed by these exposed in health care settings, at 1.0% (95% CI, 0.3% – 1.8%; odds ratio [OR] relative to family publicity, 0.09), and on public transportation, at 0.1% (95% CI, 0.0% – 0.4%; OR, 0.01).
The authors display cloak that the 10.3% family transmission price was once per beforehand reported secondary an infection charges among family participants of 11.2% in diversified cities in China and 10.5% in the US.
Illness Severity Correlates With Risk
Researchers chanced on that the risk for secondary transmission elevated with the severity of index instances.
“This helps the explore of the World Health Organization that asymptomatic instances weren’t the foremost drivers of the total epidemic dynamics,” the authors write.
Table. Secondary Transmission by Severity of Index Cases
| Severity level | Transmission (%)* | 95% CI, % |
|---|---|---|
| Asymptomatic | 0.3 | 0.0 – 1.0 |
| Delicate | 3.3 | 1.8 – 4.8 |
| Life like | 5.6 | 4.4 – 6.8 |
| Excessive/serious | 6.2 | 3.2 – 9.1 |
*P for trend < 0.001.
When index case sufferers had expectoration, they had been linked with almost five instances the risk for secondary transmission (13.6% vs 3.0% for index instances without expectoration; OR, 4.81; 95% CI, 3.35 – 6.93).
China is ready to hint shut contacts of of us identified with COVID-19 by a mobile phone database developed primarily primarily based fully on the movements of users. The procedure is ready to measure proximity between of us when instances are confirmed.
Researchers acknowledged a see limitation was once that sufferers with COVID-19 had been asked to cope with in mind when symptoms first occurred, which would possibly well introduce seize bias. Additionally, symptoms and severity of index instances weren’t assessed on the time of publicity to contacts. Funding was once supplied by the Guangdong Province Elevated Vocational Colleges and Colleges Pearl River Pupil Funded Diagram, the National Pure Science Foundation of China, the Constructing of Excessive-Level University of Guangdong, and the Zhejiang University Special Scientific Analysis Fund for COVID-19 Prevention and Sustain watch over. The authors hang reported no relevant financial relationships.
Ann Intern Med. Published on-line August 13, 2020. Burly textual screech material
Marcia Frellick is a contract journalist primarily primarily based fully in Chicago. She has beforehand written for the Chicago Tribune, Science Facts, and Nurse.com and was once an editor on the Chicago Solar-Occasions, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and the St. Cloud (Minnesota) Occasions. Prepare her on Twitter at @mfrellick