Increased transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7 by age and viral load

Frederik Plesner Lyngse (), Kåre Mølbak, Robert Leo Skov, Lasse Engbo Christiansen, Laust Hvas Mortensen, Mads Albertsen, Camilla Holten Møller, Tyra Grove Krause, Morten Rasmussen, Thomas Yssing Michaelsen, Marianne Voldstedlund, Jannik Fonager, Nina Steenhard and Carsten Thure Kirkeby
Additional contact information
Frederik Plesner Lyngse: University of Copenhagen
Kåre Mølbak: Statens Serum Institut
Robert Leo Skov: Statens Serum Institut
Lasse Engbo Christiansen: DTU Compute
Laust Hvas Mortensen: Statistics Denmark
Mads Albertsen: Aalborg University
Camilla Holten Møller: Statens Serum Institut
Tyra Grove Krause: Statens Serum Institut
Morten Rasmussen: Statens Serum Institut
Thomas Yssing Michaelsen: Aalborg University
Marianne Voldstedlund: Statens Serum Institut
Jannik Fonager: Statens Serum Institut
Nina Steenhard: Statens Serum Institut
Carsten Thure Kirkeby: University of Copenhagen

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract New lineages of SARS-CoV-2 are of potential concern due to higher transmissibility, risk of severe outcomes, and/or escape from neutralizing antibodies. Lineage B.1.1.7 (the Alpha variant) became dominant in early 2021, but the association between transmissibility and risk factors, such as age of primary case and viral load remains poorly understood. Here, we used comprehensive administrative data from Denmark, comprising the full population (January 11 to February 7, 2021), to estimate household transmissibility. This study included 5,241 households with primary cases; 808 were infected with lineage B.1.1.7 and 4,433 with other lineages. Here, we report an attack rate of 38% in households with a primary case infected with B.1.1.7 and 27% in households with other lineages. Primary cases infected with B.1.1.7 had an increased transmissibility of 1.5–1.7 times that of primary cases infected with other lineages. The increased transmissibility of B.1.1.7 was multiplicative across age and viral load.

Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27202-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-27202-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27202-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().