Risk of symptomatic COVID‐19 due to aircraft transmission: a retrospective cohort study of contact‐traced flights during England’s containment phase

• DOI: 10.1111/irv.12846
• Publication Date: 2021-03-02T04:49:47Z
• Authors: Paula Bianca Blom...; Hikaru Bolt; Simon Packer; Ulf Schaefer; Steven Platt; Gavin Dabrera; Maya Gobin; Isabel Oliver
• Keywords: Contact tracing

Knowledge gaps remain regarding SARS-CoV-2 transmission on flights. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to estimate risk of acquiring symptomatic aircraft, inform contact tracing and infection control efforts.We identified co-passengers infectious passengers 18 England-bound flights from European cities up 12/03/2020, using manifests received for tracing. Infectious were laboratory-confirmed cases with symptom onset 7 days before 2 after the flight. Possible aircraft-acquired 3-14 post-flight no known non-flight exposure. Manifests was merged national case management dataset (identifying cases, dates, status) COVID-19 linelist. Contact notes reviewed identify exposures. calculated attack rates (ARs) among all within subgroups, including by distance number on-board.There 55 2313 co-passengers, 2221 flight-only contacts. Five possible identified; ARs 0.2% (95%CI 0.1-0.5) contacts 3.8% 1.3-10.6) contact-traced sat two-seat radius. The AR 92 co-travellers exposure 13.0% 7.6%-21.4%). There insufficient numbers assess differences between subgroups.We conclude that due short medium-haul is low, recommend prioritising contact-tracing close where resources are limited. Further research aircraft encouraged.