Imperial College London
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Dr Natsuko Imai

Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health

Honorary Senior Research Fellow
 
 
 
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Contact

 

n.imai Website

 
 
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Location

 

G26Medical SchoolSt Mary's Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@unpublished{Imai:2022:10.1101/2022.02.10.22270735,
author = {Imai, N and Gaythorpe, KAM and Bhatia, S and Mangal, TD and Cuomo-Dannenburg, G and Unwin, HJT and Jauneikaite, E and Ferguson, NM},
doi = {10.1101/2022.02.10.22270735},
publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory},
title = {COVID-19 in Japan: insights from the first three months of the epidemic},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.10.22270735},
year = {2022}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - UNPB
AB  - BackgroundUnderstanding the characteristics and natural history of novel pathogens is crucial to inform successful control measures. Japan was one of the first affected countries in the COVID-19 pandemic reporting their first case on 14 January 2020. Interventions including airport screening, contact tracing, and cluster investigations were quickly implemented. Here we present insights from the first 3 months of the epidemic in Japan based on detailed case data. MethodsWe conducted descriptive analyses based on information systematically extracted from individual case reports from 13 January to 31 March 2020 including patient demographics, date of report and symptom onset, symptom progression, travel history, and contact type. We analysed symptom progression and estimated the time-varying reproduction number, Rt, correcting for epidemic growth using an established Bayesian framework. Key delays and the age-specific probability of transmission were estimated using data on exposures and transmission pairs. ResultsThe corrected fitted mean onset-to-reporting delay after the peak was 4 days (standard deviation: ±2 days). Early transmission was driven primarily by returning travellers with Rt peaking at 2.4 (95%CrI:1.6, 3.3) nationally. In the final week of the trusted period, Rt accounting for importations diverged from overall Rt at 1.1 (95% CrI: 1.0, 1.2) compared to 1.5 (95% CrI: 1.3, 1.6) respectively. Household (39.0%) and workplace (11.6%) exposures were the most frequently reported potential source of infection. The estimated probability of transmission was assortative by age. Across all age groups, cases most frequently onset with cough, fever, and fatigue. There were no reported cases of patients <20 years old developing pneumonia or severe respiratory symptoms.ConclusionsInformation collected in the early phases of an outbreak are important in characterising any novel pathogen. Timely recognition of key symptoms and high-risk settings for transmi
AU  - Imai,N
AU  - Gaythorpe,KAM
AU  - Bhatia,S
AU  - Mangal,TD
AU  - Cuomo-Dannenburg,G
AU  - Unwin,HJT
AU  - Jauneikaite,E
AU  - Ferguson,NM
DO  - 10.1101/2022.02.10.22270735
PB  - Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
PY  - 2022///
TI  - COVID-19 in Japan: insights from the first three months of the epidemic
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.10.22270735
UR  - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.10.22270735v1
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/95339
ER  -
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