Main driver of the pandemic: where most people get Covid-19

Beauty salons and leisure facilities have to close in November.

Researchers are now summarizing where most people actually get infected with Corona.

• The coronavirus pandemic will result in the second Germany-wide lockdown in November 2020.

  This brings far-reaching restrictions for the economy.

  Some industries are particularly affected, such as independent dealers and service providers that do not belong to a retail chain.

• Many are wondering whether lockdowns - i.e. the most extensive shutdown of public life - are actually a sensible means of containing the spread of Covid-19.

• A research team has now got to the point where most people become infected with corona viruses *.

Update from November 13th, 2020

: Superspreader events - i.e. gatherings of several people, one of whom is in the group Covid-19 - have long been discussed as the main cause of the coronavirus pandemic.

A study by the Stanford School of Engineering has now also come to the conclusion:

- where many people stay in closed rooms for long periods of time.

In order to understand where most virus transmissions occur, the Standford researchers evaluated the cellular data of 98 million Americans in ten of the largest metropolitan areas in the USA.

With the help of the anonymous data, the researchers were able to trace exactly where people were in spring 2020, for example in restaurants, car dealerships or pet shops.

In the computer model, the researchers then calculated the locations at which higher corona infection rates occurred.

The calculations made it possible to derive three factors that determine the risk of infection: where people go during the day, how long they stay there and how many other people visit the same place at the same time.

The following applies: the more people move around in the smallest of spaces, the greater the risk of corona infection.

Jure Leskovec, Stanford computer scientist and study director, said according to the specialist portal Eurekalert that the computer model offers "the strongest evidence to date" that the exit restrictions imposed this spring in the USA significantly reduced the

outdoors and thus the

would have

.

To the study

Super spreaders, travel, private households - the main drivers of the corona pandemic

Article from 11/11/2020

: The Germany-wide November lockdown affects every citizen - some more, some less.

The aim is to get the coronavirus infection numbers under control again.

These had increased rapidly in the last few weeks and doctors fear that with a further exponential increase in Covid 19 patients, the health system will reach its limits.

For the tourism industry, owners of small cosmetic or yoga studios and many other branches of the economy, the lockdown also means a threat to their existence.

.

In order to make a well-founded assessment, the causes of corona infection sources must be found.

Epidemiologist Elizabeth Lee from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, USA, and her team recently summarized the three main drivers of the pandemic in a review article.

.

Also read:

The three ways of the coronavirus: This is how Covid-19 spreads

After evaluating various studies that deal with the chains of infection in Covid-19, the US researchers came to the conclusion that most infections take place in private households.

A large-scale South Korean study of 59,000 corona patients came to the conclusion

.

The three main factors that can be traced back to corona infections at a glance:

• Contagion in the private household

  : "This is in line with the fact that contact in the household is a main cause of the transmission of other respiratory viruses", summarize the researchers, as quoted by the science.orf.at portal.

  Anyone who sleeps in the same bed, uses the same bathroom and cooks together has a lot of contact and thus increases the risk of infection.

  People also live close together in prisons or care facilities, which means an increased risk of Covid 19, according to the researchers.

• Contact with superspreaders

  : Most people are infected with Covid-19 in their own four walls, but the virus is transmitted outside the home.

  These virus transmissions are "essential for maintaining the epidemic," as the study says.

  So-called superspreading events would play an important role - i.e. if an infected person infects many people at an event such as a birthday party or a choir rehearsal, sometimes without showing symptoms themselves.

  A small number of people can therefore be responsible for many infections.

• Tourist and professional travel

  : It is obvious - due to globalization and possible long-distance travel, pathogens can spread much faster than they did 200 years ago.

  Travel restrictions are therefore a sensible measure to contain the spread of the pandemic, according to the researchers.

  Strict travel restrictions in China have shown that.

In their overview article, which was published on the Science portal, the researchers see an important starting point for containing the pandemic.

However, there are still many unanswered questions: "The relative risk of transmission in various community environments such as restaurants and retail stores is still unclear, as is the effects of measures to curb transmission in these contexts," the portal ORF Science quotes the scientists: "

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Read more

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List of rubric lists: © Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa