You Are More Likely To Catch Coronavirus Even At Home, Suggests New Study

According to new research published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), people are more at risk of contracting coronavirus at their homes.

(PTI Photo/Shailendra Bhojak)

New Delhi: South Korean epidemiologists found that people are much more likely to contract the coronavirus at home than outside. The data for the study was collected between January 20^, 2020, and March 27^, 2020 when the new coronavirus was spreading exponentially and the infections had peaked in South Korea. A study published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on July 16 2020 looked closely at 5,706 “index patients” who had tested positive for the coronavirus and more than 59,000 people who came into contact with them. Results if this story showed that just two out of 100 infected people had caught the virus from ‘non-household contacts’, whereas one in 10 had contracted the disease from their own families. When grouped by age, the infection rate within the household was higher in teenagers and people aged between 60-70. “We detected COVID-19 in 11.8% of household contacts; rates were higher for contacts of children than adults. These risks largely reflected transmission in the middle of mitigation and therefore might characterize transmission dynamics during school closure. Higher household than nonhousehold detection might partly reflect transmission during social distancing, when family members largely stayed home except to perform essential tasks, possibly creating spread within the household.” In a Reuters report, Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and one of the authors of the study was quoted “This is probably because these age groups are more likely to be in close contact with family members as the group is in more need of protection or support.” Dr. Choe Young-june, a Hallym University College of Medicine assistant professor who also worked in this study said children aged nine and under were least likely to be the index patient although he noted that the sample size of 29 was small compared to the 1,695 20-to-29-year-olds studied. According to the Reuters report, children with Covid-19 were also more likely to be asymptomatic than adults, which made it harder to identify index cases within that group. Dr. Choe said in a Reuters report,  “The difference in the age group has no huge significance when it comes to contracting Covid-19. Children could be less likely to transmit the virus, but our data is not enough to confirm this hypothesis.” The researchers also suggest that the current strategy for physical distancing is important to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. “Hand and respiratory hygiene should be encouraged to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 within affected households,” said the study.