Guangdong’s coronavirus success shows an outbreak can be controlled, study finds
- More than 1.6 million Covid-19 tests have been carried out in the southern Chinese province
- Oxford researcher says studying virus genomes can help reveal transmission patterns as well as travel and contact history
Researchers from the University of Oxford and the Guangdong Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analysed the genomic sequences of 53 patients from Guangdong. Their study revealed that the outbreak in Guangdong was mostly made up of independent cases introduced from outside the southern province instead of local transmission, which was around a quarter of the total cases in the province.
The researchers credit the containment of community spread in Guangdong to mass testing, tracing and isolation.
“Our work in Guangdong province shows that high levels of very early testing, together with active case tracing and strict isolation, can bring an outbreak under control,” said Dr Lu Jing from the Guangdong CDC and co-author of the study.
By March 19, Guangdong had 1,388 confirmed Covid-19 cases, the highest outside Hubei. Locally transmitted cases were estimated to be 336, and two-thirds – or 1,014 – had a likely exposure history in Hubei. Around 1.6 million tests were performed, the paper said.
