Inference of person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 reveals hidden super-spreading events during the early outbreak phase

Liang Wang; Xavier Didelot; Jing Yang; Gary Wong; Yi Shi; Wenjun Liu; George F. Gao; Yuhai Bi

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-18836-4

Nature Communications (Oct 2020)

Inference of person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 reveals hidden super-spreading events during the early outbreak phase

Liang Wang,
Xavier Didelot,
Jing Yang,
Gary Wong,
Yi Shi,
Wenjun Liu,
George F. Gao,
Yuhai Bi

Affiliations

Liang Wang: CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Center for Influenza Research and Early-warning (CASCIRE), CAS-TWAS Center of Excellence for Emerging Infectious Diseases (CEEID), Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xavier Didelot: School of Life Sciences and Department of Statistics, University of Warwick
Jing Yang: CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Center for Influenza Research and Early-warning (CASCIRE), CAS-TWAS Center of Excellence for Emerging Infectious Diseases (CEEID), Chinese Academy of Sciences
Gary Wong: Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yi Shi: CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Center for Influenza Research and Early-warning (CASCIRE), CAS-TWAS Center of Excellence for Emerging Infectious Diseases (CEEID), Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wenjun Liu: CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Center for Influenza Research and Early-warning (CASCIRE), CAS-TWAS Center of Excellence for Emerging Infectious Diseases (CEEID), Chinese Academy of Sciences
George F. Gao: CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Center for Influenza Research and Early-warning (CASCIRE), CAS-TWAS Center of Excellence for Emerging Infectious Diseases (CEEID), Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yuhai Bi: CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Center for Influenza Research and Early-warning (CASCIRE), CAS-TWAS Center of Excellence for Emerging Infectious Diseases (CEEID), Chinese Academy of Sciences

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18836-4
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 6

Abstract

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Although SARS-CoV-2 has spread rapidly, the contribution of super-spreading events to transmission is unclear. Here, the authors show that the number of secondary infections arising from an individual infection in the early phase of the outbreak was highly skewed, indicating that super-spreading events occurred.

Published in Nature Communications

ISSN: 2041-1723 (Online)
Publisher: Nature Portfolio
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science
Website: https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

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