Epidemiological Characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 in Myanmar
1 Defence Services Medical Academy, Mingaladon, Yangon, Myanmar
2 Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
3 Health and Disease Control Unit, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar
Abstract
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In Myanmar, first COVID-19 reported cases were identified on 23rd March 2020. There were 336 reported confirmed cases, 261 recovered, and 6 deaths through 13th July 2020. This retrospective case series included all COVID-19 confirmed cases during this period, with data extracted from daily official reports of the Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Myanmar. Among 336 confirmed cases, 169 had reported transmission events. The median serial interval was 4 days (IQR 2–5) with a range of 0–26 days. The mean reproduction number was 1.44 (95% CI 1.30–1.60) by exponential growth method and 1.32 (95% CI 0.98–1.73) by maximum likelihood method. This study outlined the epidemiological characteristics and epidemic parameters of COVID-19 in Myanmar during its early phase. The estimated parameters are comparable with other studies, and the variability of these parameters should be considered when implementing disease control strategy in Myanmar.
