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Superspreaders drive the largest outbreaks of hospital onset COVID-19 infections

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Illingworth, Christopher JR  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0030-2784
Hamilton, William L  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3330-353X
Warne, Ben 
Routledge, Matthew 
Popay, Ashley 

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 is notable both for its rapid spread, and for the heterogeneity of its patterns of transmission, with multiple published incidences of superspreading behaviour. Here, we applied a novel network reconstruction algorithm to infer patterns of viral transmission occurring between patients and health care workers (HCWs) in the largest clusters of COVID-19 infection identified during the first wave of the epidemic at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK. Based upon dates of individuals reporting symptoms, recorded individual locations, and viral genome sequence data, we show an uneven pattern of transmission between individuals, with patients being much more likely to be infected by other patients than by HCWs. Further, the data were consistent with a pattern of superspreading, whereby 21% of individuals caused 80% of transmission events. Our study provides a detailed retrospective analysis of nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and sheds light on the need for intensive and pervasive infection control procedures.

Description

Funder: Academy of Medical Sciences; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000691


Funder: NIHR; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000272


Funder: National Institute for Health Research; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000272


Funder: The Health Foundation

Keywords

Research Article, Evolutionary Biology, Microbiology and Infectious Disease, SARS-CoV-2, nosocomial transmission, superspreader, hospital, Virus

Journal Title

eLife

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2050-084X

Volume Title

10

Publisher

eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (108070/Z/15/Z)
Wellcome Trust (215515/Z/19/Z)
Wellcome Trust (097997/Z/11/Z)
Wellcome Trust (204870/Z/16/Z)
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00002/11)
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 1310)