Breaking the chain of transmission within a tertiary health service: An approach to contact tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Infect Dis Health
; 26(2): 118-122, 2021 05.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-926271
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Tertiary referral health service. INTERVENTION(S) An approach to hospital based contact tracing is described along with tools employed to streamline the process and including the development of an outbreak management team (OMT) for each contact trace.RESULTS:
Forty-one OMTs occurred, involving 23 HCW and 18 patient index cases. The total furloughed HCWs arising from these contact traces was 383, with individual contact traces furloughing a mean (range) of 10 (0-80) HCWs. Importantly, 15 furloughed HCWs subsequently became COVID-19 positive during their 14-day isolation period, showing the importance of the contact tracing process and the ability to remove workers from the workplace before they become infectious.CONCLUSIONS:
A standardised, streamlined contact tracing procedure in healthcare settings ensures any impacts of COVID-19 positive cases are consistently managed. This response framework may be of use to other health services and help reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in the workplace.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Tertiary Healthcare
/
Contact Tracing
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Infect Dis Health
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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