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COVID-19 transmission in Hong Kong despite universal masking

OBJECTIVES: mask-wearing outside the home has been almost universal in Hong Kong since late January 2020 with very high compliance. Nevertheless, community spread of COVID-19 has still occurred. We aimed to assess the settings where COVID-19 transmission occurred and determine the fraction of transm...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Martín-Sánchez, Mario, Lim, Wey Wen, Yeung, Amy, Adam, Dillon C., Ali, Sheikh Taslim, Lau, Eric H.Y., Wu, Peng, Yuen, Kwok-Yung, Leung, Gabriel M., Cowling, Benjamin J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The British Infection Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8061183/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33895227
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.04.019
Descripción
Sumario:OBJECTIVES: mask-wearing outside the home has been almost universal in Hong Kong since late January 2020 with very high compliance. Nevertheless, community spread of COVID-19 has still occurred. We aimed to assess the settings where COVID-19 transmission occurred and determine the fraction of transmission events that occurred in settings where masks are not usually worn. METHODS: we reviewed detailed information provided by the Hong Kong Department of Health on local COVID-19 cases diagnosed up to 30 September 2020 to determine the most likely settings in which transmission occurred. We classified them in probably mask-on or mask-of and compared the prevalence of asymptomatic infections in these settings. RESULTS: among the 2425 cases (65.3%, 2425/3711) with information on transmission setting, 77.6% of the transmission occurred in household and social settings where face masks are not usually worn. Infections that occurred in mask-on settings were more likely to be asymptomatic (adjusted odds ratio 1.33; 95% confidence interval: 1.04, 1.68). CONCLUSIONS: we conclude that universal mask-wearing can reduce transmission, but transmission can continue to occur in settings where face masks are not usually worn. The higher proportion of asymptomatic cases in mask-on settings could be related to a milder disease presentation or earlier case detection.