Household Transmission of COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Study

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the entire world to a standstill. The disease is rapidly transmitting in the community. Imposed lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic have effectively delayed the transmission in the community but the transmissibility in households needs to be explored. The aim of this study was to estimate the household transmission of COVID-19 and assess the factors affecting transmission.

A cross-sectional study where the data were collected from a single isolation center, was conducted. Patients were contacted by phone. Information regarding number of COVID-19-positive cases in the family, their demographic details, along with number of rooms in their household was collected.

A total of 369 families of COVID-19-positive patients were contacted. Nineteen families with a single member were excluded. Out of 350 families with a total 2126 members, 480 (22.5%) were COVID-19 positive. Mean age was 30.12 years (±14.39) and majority of them were males (68.9%). Majority of the cases (67.3%) were in the age group (19-49 years). Mean rooms per person were 0.51± 0.20 (0.14 to 1.50). Mild negative correlation was seen between number of positive COVID-19 cases and rooms per person (r= -0.138, p=0.008) while moderate negative correlation with number of family members and proportion of family members being COVID-19 positive (r= -0.542, p≤0.0001).

One in four family members got infected with COVID-19, they were majority males and in the working age group. Negative correlation of positive cases with number of family members and mild negative correlation between rooms per person and proportion of family member affected indicates some other factors may be responsible for household transmission than these factors.