Super-spreaders main reason for spike in Covid-19 cases in India: Study

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The transmission of COVID-19 in India has been driven mainly by super-spreaders a study by the largest contact tracing study in the country has revealed. The study has also claimed that children have been a key factor in the virus’ spread throughout the country.

Researchers have found that over 70 per cent of COVID-19 infected patients in the country did not infect any of their contacts, while 8 per cent of infected individuals accounted for 60 per cent of observed new infections.

Half-million people were studied and it was found that both cases and deaths due to the disease have been more heavily concentrated in the 40-69 year age group. The researchers also found a high prevalence of infection among children.

The study, published in Science journal on Wednesday, assessed the disease transmission patterns in 5,75,071 individuals exposed to 84,965 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh based on data collected by tens of thousands of contact tracers.

According to the scientists, the findings offer a peek into the pandemic’s trajectory. The study noted that contacts with the same age were associated with the greatest infection risk– a pattern, which the researchers said, was strongest among children between 0-14 years of age, and among adults older than 65 years. They said the proportion of deaths to the number of infected people, known as the case-fatality ratio (CFR), spanned 0.05 per cent at ages 5-17 years to 16.6 per cent at ages exceeding 85.

Follow-up testing of exposed contacts revealed that 70 per cent of infected individuals did not infect any of their contacts, while 8 per cent of coronavirus positive patients accounted for 60 per cent of observed new infections. The researchers said this finding presents the largest empirical demonstration of superspreading, which is when an unusually large number of individuals are infected by few other people. They said the findings “may indicate the identification of less-severe infections through active case-finding.”