An article in reviews recent studies about COVID-19 transmission, including one聽led by聽Jessica Lin, MD, that showed COVID-19 spreads quickly through a household.聽The observational study, conducted between April and October 2020, followed 100 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 around the Raleigh, N.C., area and included a total of 208 additional household members. Excluding 73 household members who already tested positive for COVID-19 when researchers got to their home, the secondary attack rate among household contacts was 32%.
鈥淲e think this number is actually much higher,鈥� said Lin, assistant professor in the division of infectious diseases.聽鈥淪ometimes we were getting to households to test people four or five days after the initial COVID-positive person showed symptoms. By that time, a lot of household members were already infected. But because that infection happened before we got there, we couldn鈥檛 include it in our data.鈥�
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