Investigation of a COVID-19 cluster involving vertical transmission in a residential building, Taiwan, 2021

Hsin-Yi Wei; Cheng-Ping Chang; Ming-Tsan Liu; Jung-Jung Mu; Chia-Ping Su

doi:10.1016/j.jmii.2023.08.009

Investigation of a COVID-19 cluster involving vertical transmission in a residential building, Taiwan, 2021

J Microbiol Immunol Infect. 2024 Feb;57(1):195-199. doi: 10.1016/j.jmii.2023.08.009. Epub 2023 Sep 9.

Authors

Hsin-Yi Wei¹, Cheng-Ping Chang², Ming-Tsan Liu¹, Jung-Jung Mu¹, Chia-Ping Su³

Affiliations

¹ Taiwan Centers for Disease Control, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taipei, Taiwan.
² Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan, Taiwan.
³ Taiwan Centers for Disease Control, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taipei, Taiwan; School of Medicine, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. Electronic address: cpsu@cdc.gov.tw.

PMID: 37699780
DOI: 10.1016/j.jmii.2023.08.009

Abstract

We investigated a COVID-19 cluster involved seven case-patients lived in a high-rise building in September 2021. We used a simplified tracer-gas experiment and virus sequencing to establish the link between case-patients. Vertical transmission among vertically aligned apartments on different floors in a building was the most likely route of transmission.

Keywords: COVID-19; Exhaust systems; Long-range aerosol transmission; Residential building; Tracer-gas experiments; Vertical transmission.

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Humans
Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical
Taiwan / epidemiology