The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, Houston, TX, USA.
Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, Houston, TX, USA.
Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2023 Oct 23;17:e516. doi: 10.1017/dmp.2023.189.
This study sought to better understand the types of locations that serve as hubs for the transmission of COVID-19.
Contact tracers interviewed individuals who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 between November 2020 and March 2021, as well as the people with whom those individuals had contact. We conducted a 2-mode social network analysis of people by the types of places they visited, focusing on the forms of centrality exhibited by place types.
The most exposed locations were grocery stores, commercial stores, restaurants, commercial services, and schools. These types of locations also have the highest "betweenness," meaning that they tend to serve as hubs between other kinds of locations since people would usually visit more than 1 location in a day or when infected. The highest pairs of locations were grocery store/retail store, restaurant/retail store, and restaurant/grocery store. Schools are not at the top but are 3 times in the top 7 pairs of locations and connected to the 3 types of locations in those top pairs.
As the pandemic progressed, location hotspots shifted between businesses, schools, and homes. In this social network analysis, certain types of locations appeared to be potential hubs of transmission.
本研究旨在更好地了解作为 COVID-19 传播枢纽的场所类型。
接触者追踪者对 2020 年 11 月至 2021 年 3 月期间检测出 SARS-CoV-2 呈阳性的个体以及与这些个体接触过的人进行了访谈。我们对人们按其访问的场所类型进行了 2 模式社交网络分析，重点关注场所类型所表现出的形式的中心性。
最暴露的地点是杂货店、商业商店、餐馆、商业服务和学校。这些类型的场所也具有最高的“中介度”，这意味着它们通常是其他类型场所之间的枢纽，因为人们通常每天或在感染时会访问多个地点。最高的对地点是杂货店/零售店、餐馆/零售店和餐馆/杂货店。学校不在首位，但在前 7 对地点中的 3 对中，并且与这些前 3 对地点中的 3 种类型的地点相连。
随着大流行的进展，热点地点在企业、学校和家庭之间转移。在这个社交网络分析中，某些类型的地点似乎是潜在的传播枢纽。
