The Serial Interval of COVID-19 in Korea: 1,567 Pairs of Symptomatic Cases from Contact Tracing

• Published in: Journal of Korean medical science Vol. 35; no. 50; pp. e435 - 5
• Main Authors: Hong, Kwan, Yum, Sujin, Kim, Jeehyun, Chun, Byung Chul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korea (South) The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences 28.12.2020; 대한의학회
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Brief Communication; Contact Tracing; COVID-19 - epidemiology; COVID-19 - transmission; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Republic of Korea - epidemiology; SARS-CoV-2; Time Factors; Young Adult; 의학일반; Republic of Korea; COVID-19; Contact Tracing; Coronavirus; Serial Interval; Epidemiology; Disease Transmission
• ISSN: 1011-8934; 1598-6357; 1598-6357
• DOI: 10.3346/jkms.2020.35.e435

Although coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing pandemic, the mean serial interval was measured differently across nations. Through the Korean national COVID-19 contact tracing system, we were able to investigate personal contacts in all symptomatic cases in Korea from January 20 to August 3, 2020. The mean serial interval was calculated by the duration between the symptom onset of the infector and infectee, and became shorter after the case definition changed to include not-imported cases in Korea on February 20, 2020. The mean serial interval before and after this fifth case definition was 6.12 and 3.93 days based on the infectors' symptom onset date, respectively, and 4.02 days in total with the median of 3 days. Older age and women lead to longer serial intervals.