BMC Infectious Diseases (May 2022)

Quantifying human mixing patterns in Chinese provinces outside Hubei after the 2020 lockdown was lifted

  • Yining Zhao,
  • Samantha O’Dell,
  • Xiaohan Yang,
  • Jingyi Liao,
  • Kexin Yang,
  • Laura Fumanelli,
  • Tao Zhou,
  • Jiancheng Lv,
  • Marco Ajelli,
  • Quan-Hui Liu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07455-7
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Abstract Background Contact patterns play a key role in the spread of respiratory infectious diseases in human populations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the regular contact patterns of the population have been disrupted due to social distancing both imposed by the authorities and individual choices. Many studies have focused on age-mixing patterns before the COVID-19 pandemic, but they provide very little information about the mixing patterns in the COVID-19 era. In this study, we aim at quantifying human heterogeneous mixing patterns immediately after lockdowns implemented to contain COVID-19 spread in China were lifted. We also provide an illustrative example of how the collected mixing patterns can be used in a simulation study of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Methods and results In this work, a contact survey was conducted in Chinese provinces outside Hubei in March 2020, right after lockdowns were lifted. We then leveraged the estimated mixing patterns to calibrate a mathematical model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Study participants reported 2.3 contacts per day (IQR: 1.0–3.0) and the mean per-contact duration was 7.0 h (IQR: 1.0–10.0). No significant differences in average contact number and contact duration were observed between provinces, the number of recorded contacts did not show a clear trend by age, and most of the recorded contacts occurred with family members (about 78%). The simulation study highlights the importance of considering age-specific contact patterns to estimate the COVID-19 burden. Conclusions Our findings suggest that, despite lockdowns were no longer in place at the time of the survey, people were still heavily limiting their contacts as compared to the pre-pandemic situation.

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