Hospital-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection in the UK's first COVID-19 pandemic wave
Analysis estimates 11.3% (95% CI 11.1–11.6) of patients with COVID-19 in 314 UK hospitals became infected after hospital admission. There was however marked heterogeneity between trusts and by the nature of care provided (e.g. 61.9% in residential community care hospitals).
Source:
The Lancet
SPS commentary:
The authors say it is critical to use the lessons learned so far in the pandemic to minimise the burden of hospital-acquired infections, and to consider new approaches to reduce the burden further. There are opportunities to pre-empt hospital-acquired infections and break chains of transmission through regular patient, resident, and staff testing including point-of-care diagnostics, as recently introduced for NHS staff, coupled with robust hospital infection prevention and control policies that include staff vaccination, environmental disinfection, and appropriate isolation, all supported by sentinel monitoring systems.