Epidemiological parameters of coronavirus disease 2019: a pooled analysis of publicly reported individual data of 1155 cases from seven countries

Shujuan Ma; Jiayue Zhang; Minyan Zeng; Qingping Yun; Wei Guo; Yixiang Zheng; Shi Zhao; Maggie H Wang; Zuyao Yang

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03. 21.20040329 doi: medRxiv preprint concerned, age, sex, type of exposure, first date and period (if applicable) of exposure, date of symptom onset, initial symptoms, severity, whether the case was from a cluster. For a clustering case, the generation he/she belonged to and the exposure date, symptom onset date and severity of the infector were also recorded. The retrieved reports were split into six parts, with each researcher responsible for one part. For each part, the eligibility of and data extracted from reports were firstly determined by one researcher and then cross-checked by another three researchers. All uncertainty and disagreements were discussed among the researchers. If no consensus could be reached after discussion, the concerned cases would be excluded to ensure the correctness and accuracy of data. For example, if it could not be determined who was infected through attending a group activity (i.e., infectee) and who had been infected before he/she attended the activity (i.e., infector), then all clustering cases related to the activity had to be excluded.