Researchers identified three main drivers of the coronavirus epidemic



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Research participant Elizabeth Lee wrote that SARS-CoV-2-A good proportion of infections are likely to occur in homes. The researchers cite several studies showing that between 46 and 66 percent of infections are family-related.

Both studies on previous contact investigations and a study in South Korea based on more than 59,000 cases concluded that those who live in a household are six times more likely to be infected than other close contacts.

Married couples are twice as likely to be infected as other adults in their household. In multigenerational households, older people are at additional risk if younger family members have to go to work or school, the study read.

This is consistent with the fact that living in the same household is also the main site of transmission for other respiratory viruses.

– the researchers stressed.

Law enforcement institutions, group accommodations or nursing homes pose a similar threat., citing as an example that 66 percent of the residents of a homeless shelter, 62 percent of the residents of a nursing home and 80 percent of a wing of the prison were infected with the virus. And while inmates rarely leave these institutions, those who work there and visitors connect them with outside communities.

While many infections occur in homes, the events that connect these communities are essential to sustaining the epidemic, American scientists have written. The appearance of the infection depends on the complex interaction of several factors.

So-called superinfectious events play an important role, that is, situations in which an infected person, even asymptomatic, transmits the pathogen to many others. Recently, such an event has been identified as choir rehearsals, services, weddings and, as such, butchers, where a small number of infected people could transmit the virus to a large number of people.

The researchers cited studies that found that 80 percent of the infections were caused by 10 percent of the cases.

The third force sustaining the epidemic, say researchers travel between regions and countries. Some long-distance travelers are already enough to spread the virus around the world.

“That is why the initial travel restrictions could not stop the new spread of the new coronavirus, although it may have slowed the pandemic,” they wrote.

Cover Image Source: Getty Images



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