- Those who came into contact with confirmed Covid-19 cases just before or soon after symptoms appeared were most likely to become infected
- Researchers say findings highlight the importance of early contact tracing and tracking as well as social distancing
South China Morning Post
Date: 3 May, 2020
By: Simone McCarthy
Most transmission of Covid-19 occurs at the very early stage of the disease or before the onset of symptoms, a study based on Taiwan's contact tracing system has found.
The research looked at the outcomes for 2,761 close contacts linked to Taiwan's 100 confirmed cases of the disease caused by a new coronavirus up to March 18.
Only 22 of those contacts were found to have contracted Covid-19, and all of them caught the disease from people who had not yet reached their sixth day of illness or had not even started to show symptoms.
The findings – published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine on Friday – come as countries around the world are looking to find the best ways to stop the disease spreading as they ease social distancing measures and start to reopen their economies.
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