Question: If the Covid-19 is a highly contagious virus, why are there families in which the father hasn’t contracted the virus and the mother has or viceversa?

Alex Holmes answered on 8 Jun 2020:

That’s a really good question! I think this is quite a rare situation, but it comes down to how careful people have been and how people show symptoms.

So my mum works in the NHS and comes into contact with nurses that work with Covid-19 patients each day, so she knows that she’s more at risk of being exposed to the virus and getting ill. That means she has started sleeping in my old bedroom and being really careful to disinfect the bathroom and kitchen after she uses them to protect my dad from potentially being exposed too. In other families, maybe one person realised they were feeling ill and self isolated in their bedroom until they were better, meaning no one else in the family got sick.

However, there’s also the fact that some people show symptoms in different ways. There’s a chance that my mum could get ill and my dad might also get ill, but not show any symptoms, making it seem like only she was ill.

I hope that helps!