Coronavirus: top Chinese expert says family isolation curbs outbreak, contradicting claims in Beijing

Chief expert of China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says studies show 83 per cent of clusters of cases occur within families

But briefing comes a day after Beijing city government opts to move people out of family isolation because household clusters show they fail to self-monitor adequately

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Passengers wear masks and raincoats at Beijing Station on Monday to protect themselves from the coronavirus. Photo: Kyodo

Published: 3:09pm, 12 Feb 2020Updated: 2:19pm, 13 Feb 2020

The chief expert of China’s disease control agency claimed on Tuesday that family isolation had been effective in curbing the spread of the coronavirus, despite the chief physician of the body’s local branch in Beijing saying that residential monitoring was not sufficient.

Speaking at a daily coronavirus news briefing in Beijing, Wu Zunyong, chief expert of the national Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said that his team had studied nearly 1,000 clusters of infections caused by the virus and found that 83 per cent happened within families, with the rest occurring in hospitals, schools, shopping malls and workplaces.

According to Wu, these clusters covered all age groups from infants to elderly people.

He said that 22 per cent of confirmed cases in these clusters contracted the disease through “first-generation transmission” – people who had lived or travelled in Hubei province where the outbreak originated. Infections in 64 per cent of these cases were among carers or individuals who had close contact with first-generation patients through events such as meals.

The remaining 14 per cent were third and fourth-generation transmissions, with the patients unknowingly contracting the virus from first-generation cases.

“The occurrences of such third or fourth-generation transmission is mainly because the first-generation patients who they had come into contact with did not show obvious clinical symptoms. And those who were in close contact with them also lacked awareness of self-protection,” Wu said.