Feasibility of controlling 2019-nCoV outbreaks by isolation of cases and contacts

Feasibility of controlling 2019-nCoV outbreaks by isolation of cases and contacts

Note: this is preliminary analysis and has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Last updated: 7 February 2020

Authors: Joel Hellewell (1), Sam Abbott* (1), Amy Gimma* (1), Nikos I Bosse (1), Christopher I Jarvis (1), Timothy W Russell (1), James D Munday (1), Adam J Kucharski (1), W John Edmunds (1), CMMID nCoV working group, Sebastian Funk** (1), Rosalind M Eggo** (1)

* these authors contributed equally

** these authors contributed equally

  1. Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London. WC1E 7HT.

Correspondence to:

Aim

To assess the viability of isolation and contact tracing to control transmission from imported cases of 2019-nCoV.

Summary of Methods

We modelled outbreak scenarios with:

In the model, initial cases are isolated following the delay to isolation, and their contacts are isolated immediately upon developing symptoms. An outbreak is defined as controlled if there are no cases after 3 months.

Summary of findings

Key Assumptions and Limitations


Figure: A) The percentage of outbreaks that are controlled for scenarios with varying reproduction number (R0), at each value of contacts traced. The baseline scenario is R0 of 2.5, 20 initial cases, a short delay to isolation, 15% of transmission before symptom onset, and 0% subclinical infection (black line). A simulated outbreak is defined as controlled if there are no cases between weeks 12 and 16 after the initial cases. See supplement for other scenarios. B) Effective reproduction number in the presence of case isolation and contact tracing. Median (line), and 50% and 95% intervals (shaded regions) are shown.

This study has been published in Lancet Global Health.