COVID-19 may be more transmissible in homes than we thought

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-08-28 01:00

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US scientists say COVID-19 may be more transmissible in households than previous estimates suggested. They brought together data from 37 new studies, including a study conducted in Australia, and data from 50 studies they had previously analysed, representing a total of around 1.25 million household contacts from 30 countries. They found that, overall, the estimated chance of passing COVID-19 to another household member was 18.9 per cent, higher than the estimate of 16.6 per cent they found in their previous analyses, which did not include the 37 new studies. However, when household members had other existing illnesses, they had a 50 per cent chance of catching COVID-19 in their homes, and when looking at just the Alpha COVID-19 variant, transmissibility was also higher at 24.5 per cent, they say.