Coronavirus outbreak: Do all affected individuals spread COVID-19 equally? WHO denies

New Delhi, Apr 11: Several reports that are related to the spread of COVID-19 has left researchers puzzled. It is reportedly said that not all infected persons are spreading the viral infection equally.

A recent study suggests that "nearly 80 per cent of secondary transmissions may have been caused by a small fraction of infected individuals".

This study was conducted by a team from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Alan Turing Institute, London. The study was based on the World Health Organisation's daily situation on the coronavirus cases.

The study has revealed that many of the secondary transmission may be caused by a very small fraction of individuals. However, this has remained consistent with a number of "super-spreading events" observed in the pandemic outbreak, and also estimates from the previous SARS/MERS outbreaks.

How WHO agreed with the findings:

On Friday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed a similar pattern in Japan, that was based on the data from Japanese cluster studies.

The Japanese government formed a dedicated team that identifies and collects data that are related to the spread of coronavirus in clusters. According to Dr Mike Ryan, the Executive Director of WHO said, "The cluster investigations have determined that only one in five individuals spread the infection further. Which means there is a particular sub-group of individuals who for different reasons can spread the infections more easily."

Several UK-based researchers highlighted the importance of restricting the "super-spreading events". The study concludes that "the effective reproduction number of Covid-19 (how many people can one infected person infect) could be drastically reduced by preventing these events and identifying characteristics of settings that could lead to such events."

Taking several events from across the world into consideration where the early spread of the deadly virus in China was linked to the Lunar New Year celebrations and several travels in China. Religious gatherings in Iran became the source of large cluster spreading events.

Meanwhile, the New York and Italy did not bring in restrictions on social gatherings until the pandemic outbreak became significantly visible. In India, an increase in the number of cases in April was linked to a religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz in New Delhi.