Abstract
Transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in healthcare settings has significant implications for patients and healthcare workers, may amplify local outbreaks, and may place additional burden on already stretched resources. Risk of missed or late diagnosis of COVID-19 was high during the UK's initial ‘containment phase’, because of strict criteria for testing. The risk remains due to asymptomatic/pre-symptomatic transmission, complicated by challenges faced with laboratory testing. We present a case study of potential nosocomial transmission associated with the first case of COVID-19 at a large acute NHS Trust in South-West London, and we describe the prevailing burden of nosocomial infections.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 621-625 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Journal of Hospital Infection |
| Volume | 106 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 22 Aug 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Nov 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors would like to thank all staff at the Trust and PHE for their ongoing work to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, S. McLean, Infection Prevention & Control Matron and A.-M. Escoffery, Occupational Health Technician for their role in the initial incident management outlined in this paper. We would also like to thank the index case's family for their permission to publish the Trust's experience related to their loved one.
Keywords
- COVID-19
- Healthcare-associated infection
- Infection control
- Nosocomial transmission
- Outbreak investigation
- SARS-CoV-2
