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A large national outbreak of COVID-19 linked to air travel, Ireland, summer 2020
- Nicola Murphy1,2 , Máirín Boland2,3 , Niamh Bambury4 , Margaret Fitzgerald4 , Liz Comerford5 , Niamh Dever5 , Margaret B O’Sullivan1 , Naomi Petty-Saphon3 , Regina Kiernan6 , Mette Jensen5 , Lois O’Connor4
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View Affiliations Hide AffiliationsAffiliations: 1 Department of Public Health, HSE-South, Cork, Ireland 2 These authors contributed equally 3 Department of Public Health, HSE-East, Dublin, Ireland 4 Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), Dublin, Ireland 5 Department of Public Health, HSE-Northwest, Sligo, Ireland 6 Department of Public Health, HSE- West, Galway, IrelandNicola MurphyNicola.murphy4 hse.ie
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Citation style for this article: Murphy Nicola, Boland Máirín, Bambury Niamh, Fitzgerald Margaret, Comerford Liz, Dever Niamh, O’Sullivan Margaret B, Petty-Saphon Naomi, Kiernan Regina, Jensen Mette, O’Connor Lois. A large national outbreak of COVID-19 linked to air travel, Ireland, summer 2020. Euro Surveill. 2020;25(42):pii=2001624. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.42.2001624 Received: 06 Oct 2020; Accepted: 21 Oct 2020
Abstract
An outbreak of 59 cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) originated with 13 cases linked by a 7 h, 17% occupancy flight into Ireland, summer 2020. The flight-associated attack rate was 9.8–17.8%. Spread to 46 non-flight cases occurred country-wide. Asymptomatic/pre-symptomatic transmission in-flight from a point source is implicated by 99% homology across the virus genome in five cases travelling from three different continents. Restriction of movement on arrival and robust contact tracing can limit propagation post-flight.
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