New COVID-19 cluster in Beijing

The new cluster of COVID-19 which may be rearing its head in Beijing may have begun a month earlier than first thought, partly due to asymptomatic infections, China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has reported.

Amid tight restrictions such as closure of schools, hotels and restaurants in high-risk areas and officials urging people not to travel or gather unnecessarily to stop the spread of the virus, the cluster reached 150 cases in a week, as of June 18.

The outbreak had emerged from a wholesale food market which had been visited by over 1,500 people.

Meanwhile, Chinese and American researchers have estimated that the ‘secondary attack’ infection rate of COVID-19 among people who live together is significantly higher than those who don’t.

Their study found that while the average patient had just a 2.4% chance of infecting someone they did not live with, that figure jumped to 17.1% – around 1 in 6 – among cohabitants.