December 21, 2020

Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 before and after Symptom Onset Impact of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions in China

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Transmission

Keywords (Tags): transmission

[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Using serial interval data from infector-infectee pairs before and after the rollout of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in China (January and February 2020), the relative frequency of pre-symptomatic transmission increased from 34% pre-rollout to 71% post-rollout. After the rollout of NPIs, transmission post-symptom onset was reduced by 82% whereas pre-symptomatic transmission decreased by only 16%. The authors suggest that interventions that limit opportunities for transmission in the later stages of infection, such as contact tracing and isolation, may have been particularly effective at reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

Bushman et al. (Dec 18, 2020). Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 before and after Symptom Onset Impact of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions in China. Pre-print downloaded Dec 21 from https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.16.20214106v1