The transmission of COVID-19 has been found to be highest within a week of the onset of symptoms, according to a medical study authored by a Taiwanese research team that was published by the American Medical Association on Friday.
The research paper “Contact Tracing Assessment of COVID-19 Transmission Dynamics in Taiwan and Risk at Different Exposure Periods Before and After Symptom Onset” was authored by six researchers for the Taiwan COVID-19 Outbreak Investigation Team and published in the monthly peer-reviewed medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
The paper, which collected data from Jan. 15 to March 18, with a final follow-up on April 2, followed Taiwan’s first 100 confirmed patients and 2,761 of their close contacts to determine transmissibility of the coronavirus before and immediately after the onset of symptoms.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The findings indicated that the infection rate was higher among contacts whose exposure to index cases started within five days of the onset of symptoms than those who were exposed later.
Contacts with exclusive pre-symptomatic exposure were also at risk, the paper said.
The infection rate was higher among household and non-household family contacts than in healthcare or other settings, the paper said, adding that the rate was also higher among those aged 40 or older.
At the daily Central Epidemic Command Center press briefing yesterday, Cheng Hao-yuan (鄭皓元), one of the authors of the study, said that the results matched similar studies conducted overseas, despite the different data sets used.
“We can now make the judgement that a few days before and a week after the onset of symptoms is the period of highest transmission for COVID-19,” Cheng said.
The high transmissibility of COVID-19 before and immediately after the onset of symptoms suggests that finding and isolating symptomatic patients paired with more generalized measures such as social distancing is required to contain the disease, he said.
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