Woman infected 71 people with Covid-19 through single elevator trip in China, report finds

A single lift trip could have infected more than 71 people
Arissa Chattasa/Unsplash

A woman in China accidentally infected at least 71 people with Covid-19 after using the lift in her tower block, a new report has found.

The unwitting super-spreader returned home to the Chinese province of Heilongjiang on March 19 following a trip to the US, according to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Prior to her arrival, the region had reported no new coronavirus cases for eight days.

The woman showed no symptoms of the disease and tested negative for the virus, but placed herself in self-quarantine at home anyway, the study explains.

She had no direct contact with any other people in her building, and had not taken the lift with anyone else.

However, on March 26, her downstairs neighbour invited her mother and her boyfriend to stay the night.

Three days later, they went to a party with another group of people.

Then, on April 2, a member of the party suffered a stroke and was taken to hospital, accompanied by his sons.

On April 7, the mother’s boyfriend began showing Covid-19 symptoms.

He tested positive for the disease two days later, becoming the first confirmed case in the cluster, according to the report published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Researchers concluded that the traveller must have contaminated the elevator, prompting a mass-spread of infections.

Her downstairs neighbour is thought to have contracted the virus while using it, before infecting her mother and her partner when they visited her apartment.

They, in turn, infected the stroke patient and his two sons at the party.

The sons took turns caring for their father, who was treated in two separate hospitals. All three of them later tested positive for the disease.

It then transpired that they had infected 28 people in the first hospital – including five nurses and a doctor – followed by another 20 in the second hospital.

After investigators learnt of the original woman's international travel, they tested her again and found that she had antibodies, suggesting she had previously contracted the virus.

Researchers wrote in their study: “We believe (the woman) was an asymptomatic carrier and that (the downstairs neighbour) was infected by contact with surfaces in the elevator in the building where they both lived.”

They concluded that their results showed how a single asymptomatic suffered could spark “widespread community transmission.”

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