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Covid-19: Travel from Italy linked to one in four early cases outside China, study finds

People who had visited Italy accounted for more than a quarter of the first reported cases of coronavirus outside China, according to a new study that found most initial infections were linked to just three countries.

Published: 31 July 2020 15:57 CEST
Covid-19: Travel from Italy linked to one in four early cases outside China, study finds
Air passengers are now subject to strict rules and regulations in Italy, and across Europe. Photo: AFP
Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used publicly-available data to trace the early spread of COVID-19 to dozens of affected countries in the 11 weeks before the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic.
 
They found that 27 percent of all the first reported cases were people with travel links to Italy.
 
Meanwhile 22 percent had been to China and 11 percent had travelled from Iran.
 
“Our findings suggest that travel from just a few countries with substantial SARS-CoV-2 transmission may have seeded additional outbreaks around the world before the characterisation of COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020,” said the CDC's Fatimah Dawood, who co-led the research.
 
 
Photo: AFP
 
The study, which was published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases this week, found that overall three quarters of the first cases in affected countries were linked to recent travel.
 
Other initial cases were travellers from Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas.
 
Researchers examined online reports from health ministries and other government agency websites, social media feeds, and press releases for information on first cases and early outbreaks.   
 
 
Transmission clusters
 
More than 17 million cases have so far been recorded worldwide since the virus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
 
Its spread prompted China to quarantine millions of people in January. 
 
Days before the pandemic was declared on March 11, northern Italy went into lockdown, quickly followed by the rest of the country.
 
The study also looked at the characteristics of the early spread of infections, identifying 101 clusters — involving 386 cases — in 29 countries during the period before the pandemic was declared.
 
 
Three quarters of these were attributed to relatively limited household transmission, with an average of 2.6 cases per cluster, the report said.
 
The 11 clusters relating to community gatherings – for example tour groups, religious meetings and dinner parties – were associated with much greater levels of infection, with 14.2 cases on average per cluster.
 
Transmission in non-healthcare workplaces was associated with an average of 4.3 cases per cluster, researchers said, adding that the findings supported social distancing measures as a means to stop the spread.   
 
The authors cautioned that the first confirmed cases may not have been the true beginning of a country's outbreak given differences in different nation's abilities to detect the virus.
 
 

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HEALTH

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

As Italy’s new school year began, masks and hand sanitiser were distributed in schools and staff were asked to prevent gatherings to help stem an increase in Covid infections.

Published: 11 September 2023 12:48 CEST
Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

Pupils returned to school in many parts of Italy on Monday and authorities said they were distributing masks and hand sanitiser amid a post-summer increase in the number of recorded cases of Covid–19.

“The advice coming from principals, teachers and janitors is to avoid gatherings of students, especially in these first days of school,” Mario Rusconi, head of Italy’s Principals’ Association, told Rai news on Monday.

He added that local authorities in many areas were distributing masks and hand sanitizer to schools who had requested them.

“The use of personal protective equipment is recommended for teachers and students who are vulnerable,” he said, confirming that “use is not mandatory.”

A previous requirement for students to wear masks in the classroom was scrapped at the beginning of the last academic year.

Walter Ricciardi, former president of the Higher Health Institute (ISS), told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper on Monday that the return to school brings the risk of increased Covid infections.

Ricciardi described the health ministry’s current guidelines for schools as “insufficient” and said they were “based on politics rather than scientific criteria.”

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Recorded cases of Covid have increased in most Italian regions over the past three weeks, along with rates of hospitalisation and admittance to intensive care, as much of the country returns to school and work following the summer holidays.

Altogether, Italy recorded 21,309 new cases in the last week, an increase of 44 percent compared to the 14,863 seen the week before.

While the World Health Organisation said in May that Covid was no longer a “global health emergency,” and doctors say currently circulating strains of the virus in Italy are not a cause for alarm, there are concerns about the impact on elderly and clinically vulnerable people with Italy’s autumn Covid booster campaign yet to begin.

“We have new variants that we are monitoring but none seem more worrying than usual,” stated Fabrizio Maggi, director of the Virology and Biosafety Laboratories Unit of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome

He said “vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity can only translate into a milder disease in young and healthy people,” but added that “vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable continues to be important.”

Updated vaccines protecting against both flu and Covid are expected to arrive in Italy at the beginning of October, and the vaccination campaign will begin at the end of October, Rai reported.

Amid the increase in new cases, Italy’s health ministry last week issued a circular mandating Covid testing on arrival at hospital for patients with symptoms.

Find more information about Italy’s current Covid-19 situation and vaccination campaign on the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

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