- Title
- COVID-19: implementing sustainable low cost physical distancing and enhanced hygiene
- Creator
- Dalton, Craig B.; Corbett, Stephen J.; Katelaris, Anthea L.
- Relation
- Medical Journal of Australia Vol. 212, Issue 10, p. 443-446.e1
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50602
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- It is estimated that about two-thirds of cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) exported from China between 1 and 13 January 2020 were undetected globally. Most of these exported cases were mild and were only detected after several hundred cases had accumulated and severe or fatal cases were recognised 5–8 weeks later, as likely occurred in the COVID-19 outbreaks in Iran, South Korea, Italy and Seattle, United States. The spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission globally has been very rapid. The basic reproduction number (R0) is estimated at between 2 and 3. The mode of transmission is thought to be droplet and contact infection, although opportunistic or close range airborne infection may be involved. The transmission dynamics of the early cases of COVID-19 were significantly different to those during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003. In particular, the proportion of COVID-19 cases from health care settings was low and the proportion with no known risk exposures was high. Another significant factor is that viral loads in nasopharyngeal and respiratory secretions are highest soon after symptom onset in patients with COVID-19 compared with a peak of around 10 days in patients with SARS, making transmission before entering health care facilities and in the pre-symptomatic phase more likely. Even though the understanding of transmission dynamics is at an early stage, they do suggest that the stepwise introduction of stringent measures will be necessary to control this epidemic and highlight the importance of early community control. Australia and other countries have experienced a first wave of disease and managed to effect a decline in cases.
- Subject
- prevention and control; public health; public policy; population health; COVID-19
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1475867
- Identifier
- uon:49678
- Identifier
- ISSN:0025-729X
- Language
- eng
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