Abstract:Objective To conduct an epidemiological investigation on 5 clustering outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Xiangtan City, to analyze the source of infection in patients, to explore its transmission mode and put forward suggestions for its prevention and control. Methods Field epidemiological methods were used to survey the cases and their close contacts, and the epidemic characteristics were described. The patients' nasopharyngeal swabs were collected, and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect viral nucleic acid. Results As of March 5, 2020, a total of 42 COVID-19 cases (including 6 asymptomatic infection patients) and 8 severe and critically ill cases were accumulatively reported in Xiangtan City. There were 5 cluster outbreaks of COVID-19 involved, with a total of 19 cases (including asymptomatic infection patients), accounting for 45.24% of the total cases. 4 of the 5 cluster outbreaks were caused by people returning to Xiangtan from Wuhan, and one cluster outbreakwas causedby local cases. There were 8 male cases and 11 female cases, and their ages were between 15 months and 84 years. As for clinical manifestations, the proportion of cough was the highest (accounting for 70.59%). The interval from the onset to isolation and treatment was between 0 and 10 days, with a median of 2 days. The proportion of patients who had been isolated before the onset of the disease was the highest, accounting for 42.11% (8/19). The time from isolation to diagnosis was between 0 and 7 days, with the median being 2 days. Conclusions Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has strong infectivity and concealment. Personnel density, dinner party/gathering and family transmission are high risk factors for the cluster epidemic. COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control work should be done in key places and key population so as to reduce the occurrence of the cluster epidemic.