Epidemiology and Transmission of COVID-19 in Shenzhen China: Analysis of 391 cases and 1,286 of their close contacts

Qifang Bi; Yongsheng Wu; Shujiang Mei; Chenfei Ye; Xuan Zou; Zhen Zhang; Xiaojian Liu; Lan Wei; Shaun A Truelove; Tong Zhang; Wei Gao; Cong Cheng; Xiujuan Tang; Xiaoliang Wu; Yu Wu; Binbin Sun; Suli Huang; Yu Sun; Juncen Zhang; Ting Ma; Justin Lessler; Teijian Feng

Since emerging in Wuhan, China in December of 2019 1 , the epidemic of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has progressed rapidly. The disease caused by this virus, dubbed COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) by the World Health Organization (WHO) is characterized by fever, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, pneumonia, and other respiratory tract symptoms [2] [3] [4] , and in many cases progresses to death. As of February 24, 2020, there have been 79,331 confirmed cases and 2,618 deaths reported worldwide 5 . The vast majority of these remain confined to Hubei province, but there has been significant spread elsewhere in China and the world. A rapid and robust response by the global scientific community has described many key aspects of SARS-CoV-2 1,2,6-8 transmission and natural history, but key questions remain.