Early transmission patterns of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in travellers from Wuhan to Thailand, January 2020

Euro Surveill. 2020 Feb;25(8):2000097. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.8.2000097.

Abstract

We report two cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in travellers from Wuhan, China to Thailand. Both were independent introductions on separate flights, discovered with thermoscanners and confirmed with RT-PCR and genome sequencing. Both cases do not seem directly linked to the Huanan Seafood Market in Hubei but the viral genomes are identical to four other sequences from Wuhan, suggesting early spread within the city already in the first week of January.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Wuhan; coronavirus; transmission; traveller.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Betacoronavirus / genetics*
  • Betacoronavirus / isolation & purification
  • COVID-19
  • China / epidemiology
  • Chromosome Mapping
  • Coronavirus Infections* / diagnosis
  • Coronavirus Infections* / epidemiology
  • Coronavirus Infections* / transmission
  • Disease Outbreaks
  • Female
  • Genome, Viral*
  • Humans
  • Medical History Taking
  • Middle Aged
  • Phylogeny
  • Pneumonia, Viral* / diagnosis
  • Pneumonia, Viral* / epidemiology
  • Pneumonia, Viral* / transmission
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Thailand
  • Travel