Dr. Sudhir Mehta refers to a recent study from JAMA highlighting COVID-19 patients may be most contagious soon after infection but a week later is a relatively safe period for contact.

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In a study of 100 index cases, no secondary transmission was observed among close contacts whose exposure started 6 days or more after cases developed symptoms.

Prior reports have described transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from asymptomatic or presymptomatic individuals (NEJM JW Infect Dis Mar 2020 and N Engl J Med 2020; 382:970). Now, to determine how soon after SARS-CoV-2 infection the risk for transmission declines, investigators studied 100 COVID-19 index patients in Taiwan and 2761 of their close contacts.