What is already known on the topic and what this study adds
The Danang local coronavirus outbreak was considered the most extensive outbreak in Vietnam after three months without community cases. Our data evaluated 389 COVID-19 cases in this period with an estimated 8.7% mortality rate, primarily associated with older age, delayed detection (undetected COVID-19 test results), positive after quarantine, and presented with severe symptoms at the time of diagnosis.
The rapid increase in the infection rate of the easily transmitted virus COVID-19 has stricken the world from its beginning in Dec 2019 until the present day, indicating the necessity of countries to strict measures to end this pandemic. The second wave of SARS-COV-2 can be worse than the first one due to the rapid mutation seen in this virus, showing easier dynamic transmissibility. Various factors include airborne transmission of aerosols through undetermined causes such as direct expiratory actions (coughing and/or sneezing) or indirect contact with contaminated sources from infected carriers. Asadi et al. discussed, most infections occurred during the asymptomatic or pre-asymptomatic phase, aided by the rapid dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 [13]. In other words, the infection shows a dynamic transmission beyond the main airborne or respiratory mechanisms (coughing or sneezing). However, this study has shown that the virus can be suppressed by social distancing. Our study substantially proved in several ways, most of the confirmed patients were asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis (69.7%, n=271), whom 57.6% of them were undefined sources (n=156). After implementing the social distance policy, the infection rate decreased rapidly after 15 days, establishing that approximately 95% of patients have a maximum incubation period of 15 days. The effectiveness of the social distancing and quarantine strategies was shown after 15 days of implementation (Table 1,2, and Figure 1) [13,14].
The question here is whether or not we can recognize asymptomatic patients before developing COVID-19 symptoms. Clinically, there is no association in the risk of death attributed to the late diagnosis of those patients in our study (Table 1). Theoretically, the development of contact tracing and early detection of COVID-19 patients can help contain current and future outbreaks. Vietnam developed an excellent contract tracing system that can detect early symptomatic cases. Moghadas et al. study proved that these actions could reduce the risk of future outbreaks below 1% by isolating the identified exposure cases early [15].
Subsequently, successful measures can be implemented to isolate asymptomatic cases. The most important was the direct mass screening of COVID using RT-PCR test or computed tomography (CT) examination for all contacts of prespecified COVID-19 patients. Additional measures implemented were contacted tracing for all visitors to locations identified as a source of outbreaks and those who recently came from the outbreak epicenters, social distancing, quarantine, and lockdown policies for cities that are new epicenters of COVID-19 [16-21]. Interestingly, we have discovered that a previous negative RT-PCR result can suggest higher mortality risk (p-value = 0.006). The higher mortality rate could result from exposure of negative RT-PCR patients at screening locations simultaneously as potentially positive RT-PCR patients. After a negative test, patients can still develop severe symptoms during the prodromal period of the virus. A study in Brazil showed that a high mortality rate is linked to delayed diagnosis and lower social-economic individuals [22]. The need for repeated RT-PCR tests at least two times within three days in between tests as recommended by Ai et al., who suggested a combination of CT scan and examination can detect around 70% of previous negative RT-PCR patients [23]. Another factor we discovered in this study, prior quarantine patients before a positive COVID-19 test, could raise the mortality rate of individuals in this group (p-value = 0.008) (Table S3). It might be possible that quarantined patients were not monitored daily by healthcare providers if they acquired any symptoms instead of depending on self-reporting of symptoms from quarantine patients. Late reporting of symptoms by quarantined patients delayed the confirmed diagnosis and treatment initiation, resulting in higher mortality risk [23].
In general, the risk of death could be defined by several elements. The age component was highly associated with noting that increased age was more likely associated with a higher mortality rate (p-value <0.001) due to the increasing comorbidity among older populations. An existing study showed that the most common comorbidities among the geriatric population are hypertension (48.8%) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (29%). In another study, we found that the case fatality of COVID-19 can increase from 8% up to 14% for those ≥ 70 years old [24-25]. Furthermore, severe symptomatology could play a role as well in mortality risk. We estimated the p-value of such cases equal to 0.01, consistent with many published studies' outcomes. Zhang et al. found that around 83% of mortality cases entered the ICU, 80.5% of these cases were older than 60, and about 69.5% related to respiratory failure as the leading cause of death, which is relatively similar to our result of the shortness of breath category (p-value < 0.001) presented in Table 1 [26].
Super-spreader factors (patients) existed in the Danang outbreak (Table S1 and Figure 3).In the beginning, super-spreaders mainly were asymptomaticor mildly symptomatic patients who actively traveled to various crowded places/non-identified sources (F0) and infected ≥ 10 cases. An example of such a case occurred in Korea, in which a female patient transmitted the infection to more than 5000 individuals at Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu. This event was recorded as the first large outbreak outside of China [17,28]. Other cases in Ningbo City in China transmitted COVID-19 to 28 cases [29]. In our study, three F0 patients, were infected with equal or more than ten sequences (ID456, ID619, and ID724).
On the other hand, we have noticed that most mortality cases were F0 and showed a high correlation in our univariate analysis (p-value = 0.001) (Table S3), despite the nonsignificance of the multivariate result. We hypothesized that the spread of the virus was associated with hospitalized status and increased liability to provoke severe symptoms. The diagnosis was made very late, unlike most contacts (F1-4) discovered and monitored early. That brings us to the conclusion that the most dangerous outbreaks were those associated with local hospitals. In Vietnam, more than 97% of cases of death were connected to Danang Hospital. The role of healthcare workers in spreading infections seems to be highly related. Hence, the country needs to provide protective tools, equipment, and appropriate infection control measures. Gan et al. recommended the Singaporean Ministry of Health strategy to manage all hospital-infected cases within the same hospital, plus initializing the contact tracing system, similar to the Vietnamese strategy [30]. However, we must protect our healthcare personnel from exposure and risk of contracting Covid-19 since healthcare personnel is responsible for caring for multiple patients throughout the day. They could become a "super spreader" without any symptoms to a vulnerable population of hospitalized patients and the community in which they live and serve. By implementing a regularly screening protocols of healthcare personnel, especially those in direct contact with Covid-19 patients regardless of the presentation of Covid-19 symptoms. In addition to wearing face masks or shields, we need to prepare public hospitals with high-quality ICU types of equipment for severe/critical cases of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia.
Limitations of this study
Based on the findings of epidemiological investigations, our study is considered an effective method for assisting Vietnam in effectively quarantining and controlling COVID-19 in Danang City. There are, however, certain restrictions. The findings' generalizability is questioned due to the small sample sizes of reported cases and the majority of patient data from a small number of hospitals. The study's unfeasible characteristics transpired due to the unknown transmission source due to the lack of performance genetic analysis, and the patient's symptoms were only followed up on when the patient was confirmed positive for COVID-19.