Index and First-Generation Cases in a COVID-19 Outbreak - Jilin Province, China, 2021

What is already known on this topic?

Contact tracing and testing with isolated medical care of identified cases is a key strategy for interrupting chains of transmission of COVID-19 and reducing mortality associated with COVID-19. At the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to test capacity limitations, case finding often started from suspected cases.

What is added by this report?

The index patient infected 74 individuals who were close contacts that were identified through contact tracing, and exposed individuals were monitored in quarantine with daily polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. All individuals were asymptomatic initially, but all PCR-positive individuals eventually developed symptoms. Infectivity was documented up to 8 days before being confirmed as a symptomatic case, approximately 4 days before turning PCR positive.

What are the implications for public health practice?

During an outbreak, we suggest tracing close contacts from both PCR-positive individuals and suspected cases, rather than from suspected cases alone. Due to the long period of infectivity before turning PCR positive or developing symptoms, close contacts that had contact with a newly PCR positive case within 4 days should be judged as at risk of being infected; close contacts that had contact within 8 days of a newly symptomatic case should be judged as at risk being infected.