COVID-19 is spreading faster in our homes and more often than we thought, study says
A study based on families in Tennessee and Wisconsin found that the coronavirus spreads much faster within households than previously thought — 51% of individuals living with an infected person contracted the virus themselves.
Similar research from the U.S., Europe and Asia have reported that number to be 30%, or less.
The preliminary research also revealed that cases can originate from both children and adults, with at least 75% of secondary infections occurring within five days of the first person in the home experiencing symptoms.
The researchers say immediate self-isolation and mask wearing should take place as soon as someone in your home becomes sick, especially as winter approaches and people start to spend more time indoors.
“In the absence of an efficient approach for identification of infections without regard to symptoms, these findings suggest that prompt adoption of isolation measures as soon as a person feels ill might reduce the probability of household transmission,” the Vanderbilt University researchers said in a news release.
What the researchers considered an important finding was that less than half of the household members included in the study had symptoms when they first tested positive, while many others remained asymptomatic throughout the seven-day follow-up period.
A total of 101 homes — including 101 index patients and 191 household members — from Nashville, Tennessee and Marshfield, Wisconsin were included in the study. Fourteen individuals were younger than 18 years old, including five aged younger than 12. The median age was 32 years old.
Seventy index patients — those who were the first to get sick in a home — said they spent more than four hours in the same room as one or more household members the day before they got sick with COVID-19, while another 40 spent that much time with others the day after testing positive. Some also said they slept in the same room with household members in the days before and after their diagnosis.
The researchers found that 36% of infections stemmed from symptomatic individuals and 18% came from asymptomatic household members.
The study was published in a weekly report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This story was originally published November 2, 2020 at 5:28 PM with the headline "COVID-19 is spreading faster in our homes and more often than we thought, study says."
