Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant (B.1.1.7) on prisons, England.
Public Health
; 204: 21-24, 2022 Mar.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1586771
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
Prisons are high-risk settings for infectious disease outbreaks because of their highly dynamic and crowded nature. During late 2020, prisons in England observed a surge in COVID-19 infection. This study describes the emergence of the Alpha variant in prisons during this period.METHODS:
Alpha and non-Alpha variant COVID-19 cases were identified in prisoners in England using address-matched laboratory notifications and genomic information from COG-UK.RESULTS:
Of 14,094 COVID-19-positive prisoner cases between 1 October 2020 and 28 March 2021, 11.5% (n = 1621) had sequencing results. Of these, 1082 (66.7%) were identified as the Alpha variant. Twenty-nine (2.7%) Alpha cases required hospitalisation compared with only five (1.0%; P = 0.02) non-Alpha cases. A total of 14 outbreaks were identified with the median attack rate higher for Alpha (17.9%, interquartile range [IQR] 3.2%-32.2%; P = 0.11) than non-Alpha outbreaks (3.5%, IQR 2.0%-10.2%).CONCLUSION:
Higher attack rates and increased likelihood of hospitalisations were observed for Alpha cases compared with non-Alpha. This suggests a key contribution to the rise in cases, hospitalisations and outbreaks in prisons in the second wave. With prisons prone to COVID-19 outbreaks and the potential to act as reservoirs for variants of concern, sequencing of prison-associated cases alongside whole-institution vaccination should be prioritised.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Prisoners
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Vaccines
/
Variants
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Public Health
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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