A detailed investigation of outbreak in a South African hospital found pretty good evidence for transmission by surfaces or indirect contact (nurse touches infected person A and then later touches susceptible person B). Doesn’t mean risk from deliveries is significant but worth being wary of surfaces in general.
According to current evidence, SARS‐CoV‐2 is transmitted between people through respiratory droplets and contact routes. Droplet transmission may also occur through fomites so transmission of the virus can occur by direct contact with an infected person or indirect contact with surfaces in the immediate environment of that person or with objects used on the infected person (e.g. stethoscope or thermometer). The spatial distribution of cases and exposed individuals who became infected on the wards suggests that indirect contact via health care workers or fomite transmission were the predominant modes of transmission between patients in this outbreak. Direct droplet or contact transmission would be plausible where the people that were exposed were located in close proximity to an infectious case, e.g. P4 in the bed directly opposite P3 on MW1 between 13 ‐ 16 March (Figure 7); or X1 and X3 sharing a four‐bedded bay with P7 on MW1 between 27 March ‐ 2 April (Figure 10). However, in other examples the exposed individuals were located in different rooms and different areas of the ward, making indirect contact via health care workers or fomite transmission more plausible. We also present evidence suggestive of direct droplet transmission from a symptomatic health care worker to two patients on the neurology ward.
Right, I was thinking the same thing—not just a person, but medical personnel. So you’re going from patient 1, to someone’s hands, who is then directly touching patient 2, plausibly even patient 2′s mucous membranes. That’s much more direct than a typical fomite contact, which is more like face-hands-fomite-hands-face (or if you sneeze on a doorknob, face-fomite-hands-face.)
A detailed investigation of outbreak in a South African hospital found pretty good evidence for transmission by surfaces or indirect contact (nurse touches infected person A and then later touches susceptible person B). Doesn’t mean risk from deliveries is significant but worth being wary of surfaces in general.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/study-tells-remarkable-story-about-covid-19-s-deadly-rampage-through-south-african
The surface being a person seems important in that example. Reduces the number of steps, if nothing else.
Right, I was thinking the same thing—not just a person, but medical personnel. So you’re going from patient 1, to someone’s hands, who is then directly touching patient 2, plausibly even patient 2′s mucous membranes. That’s much more direct than a typical fomite contact, which is more like face-hands-fomite-hands-face (or if you sneeze on a doorknob, face-fomite-hands-face.)