Authorities: "Half of Individual COVID-19 Transmissions Are Family Infections"

On the 23rd, when 346 new COVID-19 cases were reported, marking a return to the 300s after a week, citizens visiting the temporary screening clinic set up at Seoul Station Plaza lined up to get tested. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] Health authorities have urged compliance with quarantine rules, stating that family transmission accounts for the highest proportion of individual COVID-19 transmission cases.

On the 23rd, Lee Sang-won, head of the Epidemiological Investigation and Analysis Team at the Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH), announced during an afternoon briefing, "An analysis of individual contact cases, which account for 31.7% of all infection cases over the past four weeks, showed that family transmission accounted for 50%." In addition, infections among acquaintances and friends accounted for 10%, and workplace colleague infections accounted for 8.6%.

Lee analyzed, "In the case of family transmission, there was a clear tendency for transmission from the older generation to the younger generation." Cases where people in their 30s and 40s transmitted the virus to those aged 19 or younger accounted for 13.8% of the total, whereas the reverse?transmission from those 19 or younger to people in their 30s and 40s?was only 2.9%.

Regarding this, he said, "Even considering the population composition ratio, cases where parents transmitted the virus to their children were much more frequent than the opposite." He urged that individuals maintain strict personal hygiene even within families. In particular, parents were requested to ensure that young children wash their hands after going out to prevent infection.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.