Shorter serial intervals and incubation periods in SARS-CoV-2 variants than the SARS-CoV-2 ancestral strain

Zhanwei Du; Caifen Liu; Lin Wang; Yuan Bai; Eric H Y Lau; Peng Wu; Benjamin J Cowling

doi:10.1093/jtm/taac052

Shorter serial intervals and incubation periods in SARS-CoV-2 variants than the SARS-CoV-2 ancestral strain

J Travel Med. 2022 Sep 17;29(6):taac052. doi: 10.1093/jtm/taac052.

Authors

Zhanwei Du^{1

2}, Caifen Liu^{1

2}, Lin Wang³, Yuan Bai^{1

2}, Eric H Y Lau^{1

2}, Peng Wu^{1

2}, Benjamin J Cowling^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control, School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, 21 Sassoon Rd, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong 999077, China.
² Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health Limited, Hong Kong Science Park, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 19 Science and Technology W Ave, Hong Kong 999077, China.
³ Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EH, UK.

Abstract

The Delta and Omicron variants have the pooled estimates of serial interval as 3.4 days (95% CI: 3.0, 3.7) and 3.1 days (95% CI: 2.9, 3.2), respectively; incubation periods as 4.8 days (95% CI: 3.9, 5.6) and 3.6 days (95% CI: 2.3, 4.9), respectively.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; incubation period; meta-analysis; serial interval; systematic review; variants of concern.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Humans
Infectious Disease Incubation Period
SARS-CoV-2* / genetics
Time Factors

Supplementary concepts

SARS-CoV-2 variants