Individuals in England reduced social contacts by up to 75 percent
during the COVID-19 pandemic
Study suggests people limited contact with others even outside of
lockdown periods

Date:
March 2, 2022
Source:
PLOS
Summary:
Transmission of respiratory viruses depends partly on the rate of
close social contacts in a population. A study suggests that during
the most restrictive period of lockdown in the United Kingdom,
the number of reported contacts decreased by 75 percent from
pre-pandemic levels.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Transmission of respiratory viruses depends partly on the rate of
close social contacts in a population. A study publishing March 1 in
PLOS Medicineby Amy Gimma at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, and colleagues suggests that during the most restrictive period of lockdown in the United Kingdom, the number of
reported contacts decreased by 75% from pre- pandemic levels.


========================================================================== Public health policies imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic aimed to
curb virus transmission through reduced social contact. However, the
impact of these policies over time has not been quantified. To estimate
social interactions in England from March 2020-March 2021, researchers conducted a cross-sectional study of 19,914 participants aged 18-59,
as well as parents completing the survey on behalf of their children
under age 18, who voluntarily responded to online surveys about their demographics, behavior, and perceptions of personal risk with regard
to the pandemic. They then used statistical analyses to calculate the
average number of daily contacts reported by participants.

The researchers found that during the most restrictive lockdowns in
the UK, adults over 17 years of age reduced the number of people they
were in contact with by 75%. Throughout the year, during less stringent policies, people continued to reduce their social contacts, and only
ever reached 50% of pre- pandemic levels. However, the study had some limitations; all data were self- reported, which may have contributed to
over- or underestimating individuals' number of contacts. In addition,
future research is needed to apply these findings to transmission data
from 2021-2022.

According to the authors, "We launched the CoMix social contact
and behavioural study on 24th March 2020 to capture the changes in
social contacts, risk perception, and other behaviours. This study
quantifies changes in epidemiologically relevant contact behaviour for
one full year of the COVID-19 pandemic in England and can be used to
inform future outbreak response and can be applied to transmission of
other infectious diseases, particularly for a large-scale pandemic."
Gimma adds, "Social contacts play a key role in the transmission
of respiratory viruses, such as COVID-19, and data from the CoMix
survey helps researchers, policymakers, and the general public
understand how people have changed their social contacts throughout
the pandemic. Understanding how and where people are making the most
contacts, such as at work or in educational settings, provides insight
into where contacts can be reduced when we need to slow transmission."
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========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Amy Gimma, James D. Munday, Kerry L. M. Wong, Pietro Coletti,
Kevin van
Zandvoort, Kiesha Prem, Petra Klepac, G. James Rubin, Sebastian
Funk, W.

John Edmunds, Christopher I. Jarvis. Changes in social contacts
in England during the COVID-19 pandemic between March 2020
and March 2021 as measured by the CoMix survey: A repeated
cross-sectional study. PLOS Medicine, 2022; 19 (3): e1003907 DOI:
10.1371/journal.pmed.1003907 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220302092749.htm

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