Table 1.
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Transmission Risk Among Airplane Passengers Departing From Wuhan
| Characteristics | Upper Bound of Risk | Lower Bound of Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Date of travel | 4 January 2020 – 23 January 2020 | |
| No. of cases and close contacts | ||
| Total passengers | 5797 | |
| Close contacts | 5622 | 5400 |
| All cases | 209 | 209 |
| Index cases | 175 | 175 |
| Secondary cases | 34 | 18b |
| No. of airplanes | 177 (Airbus: 67; Boeing: 110) | |
| Reproduction number (SD)a | 0.19 (0.45) | 0.10 (0.32) |
| Attack rate by seat location, 95% CI | ||
| Overall | 0.60% (34/5622), .43–.84% | 0.33% (18/5400), .21–.53% |
| Aisle seats | 0.56% (11/1974), .31–1.00% | 0.53% (10/1884), .29–.97% |
| Middle seats | 0.71% (12/1692), .41–1.24% | .13% (2/1595), .03–.46% |
| Window seats | 0.56% (11/1956), .31%–1.00% | 0.31% (6/1921), .14–.68% |
| Seats adjacent to index cases | 9.20% (16/174), .57–14.4% | 1.32% (2/151), .37–4.70% |
| Seats not adjacent to index cases | 0.33% (18/5448), .21–.52% | 0.30% (16/5249), .19–.49% |
Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; SD: standard deviation.
The overall effective reproduction number during travel was estimated as the number of secondary cases divided by the number of index cases in each setting.
By the definition of lower bound of risk, passengers seated immediately adjacent to an index patient were excluded from close contacts of the index patient to estimate the potential low risks.