You’re most likely to catch coronavirus from the one place you can’t avoid – BGR

• A new study says the place where you’re most likely to catch the coronavirus is at home.
• The Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China traced 3,410 contacts of 391 patients with COVID-19 and found 127 who were infected. Of the 127 secondary infections, 105 occurred at home, while only one occurred in public transport.
• Patients with worse symptoms have also been found to spread the virus more easily.

Five months after the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic, most of us don’t have the luxury of staying at home all day every day in the hope that the federal government will work long enough to adopt another rescue program or that researchers will miraculously endorse a safe and effective vaccine. before the end of the year. We have to take calculated risks when we go to work, shop, or just go out for some fresh air, but it turns out that the place where you’re most likely to be infected with COVID-19 is the only one place where you will never be able to avoid completely.

A study published in the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine of the Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China examined 3,410 contacts of 391 patients who tested positive. 127 of these contacts were also infected, and the vast majority of secondary infections occurred in the home.

The study looked at a variety of potential transmission parameters and found that an overwhelming percentage of people who caught the virus from index cases did so at home. Of the 127 secondary cases, 105 were from family contact. 11 occurred in places of entertainment or workplaces, 7 in a health care facility and only 1 was traced in public transport. Using this data, the researchers determined that your risk of contracting the coronavirus if someone else is infected is highest at 10.3%. The risk drops to 1% in a healthcare facility and even lower to 0.1% in public transport.

These findings dovetail with virtually everything we’ve heard about the virus from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention down to local and anecdotal reports. Prolonged exposure in an enclosed space puts you at an increased risk of contracting the virus.

“In China, the household contact quarantine began immediately in locations designated by local CDCs after index cases were diagnosed, which may have resulted in a relatively lower secondary attack rate among household contacts compared to published studies. in other countries ”, explains the study. “However, the risk of secondary infection through family contact was still the highest compared to other contact settings, as people spent more time at home, resulting in more frequent and longer unprotected exposure than other contact parameters. “

Additionally, the study also notes that “patients with more clinically severe disease were more likely to infect their close contacts than less severe index cases.” Asymptomatic carriers were the least likely to infect others, and secondary cases were “generally clinically milder and were less likely to experience common symptoms such as fever, cough, sputum, fatigue, myalgia, and diarrhea.”

Jacob began to cover video games and technology in college as a hobby, but it quickly became clear to him that this was what he wanted to do for a living. He currently resides in New York and writes for BGR. His previously published work can be found on TechHive, VentureBeat, and Game Rant.