Has corona COVID 19 established in South Korea due to a super spreader?

Has corona COVID 19 established in South Korea due to a super spreader?

Dr K K Aggarwal

President CMAAO, HCFI and Past National President IMA

South Korea has a population of 5 crore with 24.7 lakh in city of Daegu which is facing an “unprecedented crisis” after coronavirus infections that centred on the “cult” church surged to 38 cases, out of country’s total 104.

The city, which is two hours south of the capital Seoul, was turned into a ghost town after health officials said the bulk of country’s 31 new cases announced on Thursday were linked to a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.

About 1,000 members attended worship at the church. 1,001 members of the church are asked to self-isolate to contain the spread of the virus.

The Diamond Princess has shown us that 21% get infected if people stay together.

Super-Spreader

South Korea's CDC has described an outbreak of coronavirus infections linked to a church in the city of Daegu as a "super-spreading event".

WHO says it does not use "super-spreading" as a technical term. However, "there can be incidents of transmission where a large number of people can become infected from a common source".

The term "super-spreader" implies that a particular person may be inherently more able than others to pass on disease, but virus experts say there is no evidence to show that is the case.

The spread of a virus like the new coronavirus depends on a range of environmental and epidemiological factors that ultimately lead to transmission in individual cases or clusters. These include the patient and what stage of disease they are in, their behaviour, their environment, and the amount of time spent in that environment.

The WHO described the South Korea outbreak as a "cluster" of cases and not super-spreading.