A multi-family cluster of COVID-19 associated with asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission in Jixi City, Heilongjiang, China, 2020

Hongyang Zhang; Chengcheng Hong; Qulu Zheng; Pengzheng Zhou; Yuliang Zhu; Zhongkai Zhang; Qifang Bi; Ting Ma

doi:10.1080/22221751.2020.1837015

A multi-family cluster of COVID-19 associated with asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission in Jixi City, Heilongjiang, China, 2020

Emerg Microbes Infect. 2020 Dec;9(1):2509-2514. doi: 10.1080/22221751.2020.1837015.

Authors

Hongyang Zhang¹, Chengcheng Hong^{2 3}, Qulu Zheng⁴, Pengzheng Zhou³, Yuliang Zhu¹, Zhongkai Zhang⁵, Qifang Bi⁴, Ting Ma^{2 3}

Affiliations

¹ Heilongjiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin, People's Republic of China.
² Harbin Institute of Technology at Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
³ Peng Cheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁵ Jixi City Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Jixi, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

We investigated a multi-family cluster of 22 cases in Jixi, where pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic transmission resulted in at least 41% of household infections of SARS-CoV-2. Our study illustrates the challenge of controlling COVID-19 due to the presence of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission even when extensive testing and contact tracing are conducted.

Keywords: Asymptomatic transmission; COVID-19; cluster; contact tracing; household close contact; pre-symptomatic transmission.

Publication types

Letter

MeSH terms

Adult
Asymptomatic Diseases
COVID-19 / diagnosis
COVID-19 / epidemiology*
COVID-19 / transmission*
COVID-19 / virology
COVID-19 Testing / methods
Child
China / epidemiology
Contact Tracing / statistics & numerical data*
Family
Female
Humans
Male
Pandemics*
Public Health
Quarantine / organization & administration
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
SARS-CoV-2 / genetics*
SARS-CoV-2 / isolation & purification
Severity of Illness Index
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Emergency Program for COVID-19 Prevention and Control of Guangdong Province: [Grant Number 2020KZDZX1226]; Emergency Response Program of Peng Cheng Laboratory: [Grant Number PCLERP001].