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GEORGIOS KEFALAS
Little is known about how the coronavirus spreads locally. A research team led by Adrian Egli from the Basel University Hospital has now investigated this with colleagues from the University of Basel and the ETH Zurich on the basis of spring data for the city of the Rhine.
They identified two groups in which certain infection patterns occurred: On the one hand, the elderly, who generally contracted Sars-CoV-2 in their own residential areas and transmitted it there. However, the elderly did not contribute significantly to the spread of the virus around the city. This was primarily the second group: younger people with high mobility, low income, and limited living space, as the researchers report in the study, which has yet to be reviewed by other experts.
The number of reproductions in the corresponding residential areas was significantly higher than in the more affluent areas (the number indicates how many people an infected person infects on average). One reason: socioeconomically weaker groups often work in professions where it is rarely possible to work from home. Your job also requires personal contact with other people and greater mobility, as Adrian Egli said in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency.
The researchers used about 750 corona positive tests between March and April as the basis for their epidemiological model. They sequenced the entire virus genome of more than 400 of the samples. They combined this anonymous information with population data that contained information on age, population density, and income levels. Movement data of people who traveled by public transport, car, on foot or by bicycle were also included.
According to the researchers, the results can be used for an effective vaccination strategy. “Of course it is absolutely correct to vaccinate the elderly and people at risk first,” said microbiologist Egli. This is how this sensitive group can be protected.
The epidemiological curve hardly flattens significantly. “That is why it is important that then the people who are mainly driving the pandemic receive a vaccine.” Specifically: as long as vaccines are not available for the entire population, priority should be given to groups with high mobility and from populous neighborhoods.
The identified transmission patterns can also be applied to other cities. “A large number of European cities have a population similar to that of Basel,” Egli said. The demographic structure, the distribution of the sparsely and densely populated districts, as well as the richest and poorest districts, are similar in many medium-sized cities.
