According to Reuters, a new study by South Korean
epidemiologists has found that people are actually more likely to contract
COVID-19 from those inside their homes than from outside contacts.
For those quarantining with at-risk groups, such as the
elderly or immunocompromised, this information is alarming. The CDC recommends
that those households with vulnerable individuals behave as if each member is
at a higher risk of contraction in order to limit the potential spread of
infection in-house.
In a study published by the CDC earlier this month, they
analyzed data from nearly 6,000 "index patients," or those who have tested
positive for the coronavirus, as well as over 59,000 points of contact.
The results of their analysis found that nearly 12 percent
of index patients' fellow household members had contracted the virus, while
less than two percent of those who had outside contact with the patient were
infected.
And while this may seem unsurprising, due to the fact that
our homes are where we have spent much of our time the last few months, this
calls attention to the fact that because in-house transmission is much more
likely than out-of-house contraction, households must be diligent in practicing
proper social distancing and health-safety procedures in order to protect those
closest to them.
The epidemiologists' findings also indicate that if a
household's first case was someone in their 60s to 70s or a teenager, the
infection rate was higher. And additionally, children who tested positive were
more likely to be asymptomatic, and, therefore, it was more difficult to
identify index cases in the youngest age group.
The data for the study was collected in South Korea from
January through the end of March—the time at which the country was at its peak
daily infection rate.
