Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in six care homes in London, April 2020.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Care homes are experiencing large outbreaks of COVID-19 associated with high case-fatality rates. We conducted detailed investigations in six London care homes reporting suspected COVID-19 outbreaks during April 2020.

Methods

Residents and staff had nasal swabs for SARS CoV-2 testing using RT-PCR and were followed-up for 14 days. They were categorized as symptomatic, post-symptomatic or pre-symptomatic if they had symptoms at the time of testing, in the two weeks before or two weeks after testing, respectively, or asymptomatic throughout. Virus isolation and whole genome sequencing (WGS) was also performed.

Findings

Across the six care homes, 105/264 (39.8%) residents were SARS CoV-2 positive, including 28 (26.7%) symptomatic, 10 (9.5%) post-symptomatic, 21

SUBMITTER: Ladhani SN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7480335 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature