Children & super-spreaders are active transmitters of Coronavirus in India: Study

According to a study published in the journal Science, coronavirus super-spreaders were the cause of the upsurge of COVID-19 cases in India. Researchers claim that over 1 billion Indians are at the risk of coronavirus and a group of patients which include about 8 per cent of COVID-19 cases led to nearly two-thirds of the total infections in the country. This study is based on contact tracing of over 3 million people of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. 

Coronavirus super-spreaders are cause behind spike in cases in India

According to Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, who wrote the study, India and other developing nations have seen a surge in COVID-19 cases as health care is not easily accessible in these countries which increases the risk of getting severely ill and dying due to coronavirus. Aside from the super-spreaders, nearly 71% of the people who tested positive for COVID-19 did not spread the virus to anyone. A nationwide serosurvey showed that 1 out of every 15 Indians was exposed to coronavirus. 

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The data from a total of 575,071 people who came in contact with 84,965  who tested positive for COVID-19, was examined. The traced contact was on an average, 1.3 years younger and 4.5% less liked to be male in the two states. Nearly 130 million people live in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu which constitutes about 10% of the country's total population.

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The researchers discovered that in terms of community spread there are only 1 in 40 chances of catching the virus from someone who isn't a family member or share the household. In comparison, prolonged close contact with super spreaders can lead to a 79% chance of infection. Moreover, the research found that there was a high prevalence of coronavirus among children which in turn increased the risk of infection among adults. 

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According to a tweet by CDDEP, Dr Laxminarayan said, "The young to middle adult age group is the one that is coming into contact with people. They are most likely to be outside the household & are the ones taking the disease from one place to the other."

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