Community Transmission via Indirect Media-To-Person Route: A Missing Link in the Rapid Spread of COVID-19

Qunfang Hu; Lei He; Ying Zhang

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.687937

Community Transmission via Indirect Media-To-Person Route: A Missing Link in the Rapid Spread of COVID-19

Front Public Health. 2021 Jul 28:9:687937. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.687937. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Qunfang Hu¹, Lei He², Ying Zhang³

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Institute of Disaster Prevention and Relief, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
² College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
³ College of Environment and Resource, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China.

Abstract

To prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), stringent quarantine measures have been implemented so that healthy people and virus carriers have isolated themselves in the same community owing to the limit capacity of healthcare facilities. With the exponential growth of the infected population, the residential environment is contaminated by fomites from the infected residents and consequently threating the health of susceptible residents. Till now, little has been acknowledged on this indirect transmission route and its role on community transmission. Here we address the impact of self-isolated virus carriers on the residential environment and elucidate the potential transmission pathways via contaminated environment in communities. We urge further investigation on the superspreading cases in communities and hope to arouse the attention to evaluate the potential risk of indirect transmission route as well as the corresponding control measures.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; community transmission; contaminated residential environment; indirect transmission route; media-to-person.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Fomites
Humans
Quarantine
SARS-CoV-2