From 4 to 21: How COVID-19 spread in a family
March 30, 2020 10:45
Workers in Mumbai play carrom to destress during the lockdown
The 25 coronavirus patients reported from one family at Sangli in Maharashtra were found to be living in a congested set up, which might have led the infection to spread fast among them, officials said. Initially, four family members who returned from Saudi Arabia tested positive for coronavirus on March 23.
Within a week, 21 more family members, including a two-year-old boy, were found to have contracted the infection. The district administration, however, maintained that so far there is no 'community transmission' of the viral infection, as only known contacts have been exposed to it.
"These 25 patients from Islampur tehsil belong to a big family living in a congested housing set up and because of that, they got infected," Collector Abhijeet Chaudhari told PTI on Sunday.
District civil surgeon C S Salunkhe said all the patients are from one big family and they live "side by side" in Islampur. "Majority of the family members were in touch with each other round-the-clock, that is why the exposure took place," he told PTI.
The family's secondary contacts have not been infected, so community transmission is ruled out, he said. "If a coronavirus positive person coughs in the house, his droplets spread on objects in the room. The common objects are handled by everyone in the house and this is the way the virus spreads," he explained. He, however, said since all the positive cases are from one "vertical" (family), it is actually better from the control point of view. -- PTI
Image: Workers play carrom at shop in Mumbai on Sunday. Pic: ANI
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