Familial cluster of COVID-19 infection from an asymptomatic

Excerpt

Since December 2019, the first case of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection pneumonia was detected in Wuhan, and the outbreak has been spreading rapidly in the world. As of February 18, 2020, a total of 73,332 cases of confirmed COVID-19 infection have been detected in the world as reported by the WHO [1, 2]. Given that the asymptomatic persons are potential sources of COVID-19 infection [3], we report a familial cluster case of five patients infected with COVID-19 from an asymptomatic confirmed case in Beijing. We obtained the data of patients, which included demographic, epidemiological, and clinical features; chest radiography; laboratory test; and outcomes. Laboratory confirmation of COVID-19 was detected in the first hospital admission and verified by the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). An asymptomatic case was defined as a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection case who was afebrile and well. We enrolled the family that had five patients in total with COVID-19 infection who were transferred by the Beijing Emergency Medical Service (EMS) from January 24 to 27, 2020, to the designated hospitals for special treatment. Clinical outcomes were followed up to February 29, 2020. …