RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – An individual returned to China after a trip to another country. Without any symptoms of the novel coronavirus, she quarantined and distanced herself inside her home, merely for the sake of prevention. Nevertheless, she managed to infect 71 people.
But how did that happen?
According to an article published in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal, the likely source of contamination was the building’s elevator. Among the people infected was the neighbor below the asymptomatic lady. They never used the elevator at the same time and had no close contact.
Shortly thereafter, this neighbor’s mother and her boyfriend slept in the home of the second infected individual. After this, the mother and her boyfriend went to a party together and infected three other people.
Of these three, one had a stroke and was hospitalized-unaware that she was infected with the coronavirus. In the hospital, she shared utensils with other patients and was responsible for the infection of 28 other people. Ultimately, 71 became sick – which shows the high propensity of Covid-19 to spread and remain on surfaces.
In some buildings in São Paulo, the wearing of masks became mandatory. On July 2nd, the São Paulo State Health Secretary confirmed that residential and commercial condos may be fined if residents or employees fail to wear protective masks. The fine will only be applied in cases of denunciation.
Would this be the case of a superspreader?
These higher contagion individuals have a name and definition. They are the superspreaders. Due to unidentified genetic factors, they become more contagious than others and thus can infect a larger number of individuals.
Understanding the concept is quite simple: just think of a hypothetical trip in which the driver is infected but does not know it or has very mild symptoms, and four other people are in the car with him. On a quick trip, everyone gets sick too.
This superspreader then goes to a coworker’s party and, between beers, infects ten more people. Among those 14 infected, some other may share the same high spreading power of the disease. Then this other person gets onto a crowded São Paulo subway and, without a mask, is able to infect everyone in the same car.
As a result, everyone becomes infected in a chain reaction. It’s like knocking over a line of dominoes.
Source: Exame