Infections at peak of pandemic struck hospital staff

A new study by the Royal Society has found that at least one in ten of all coronavirus infections at the peak of the pandemic in England was among patient-facing hospital and care home staff.

In one example of outbreaks at a London hospital, a review of 435 patients infected with Covid-19 between 2 March and 12 April found 66 patients, or 15 per cent, were probably or definitely infected in hospital.

The Data Evaluation and Learning for Viral Epidemics group of experts, or Delve, warned that the spread of coronavirus within hospitals and between staff was a major issue that needed far better surveillance, data and action. Currently, there is no single organisation with clear oversight of hospital-related infection surveillance, monitoring and response.

The group’s report says that a more centralised surveillance system was needed to understand hospital outbreaks and cases linked to them with results published including case numbers and reductions over time. The experts also called for better connected data systems across communities and care providers as well as setting minimum standards for outbreak investigations with all hospital infections linked to the existing test and trace system.

Researchers also estimated one per cent of all Covid-19 cases were picked up by patients while in hospital and six per cent were among care home residents.

The report said: “There was evidence of patient-to-patient transmission between cases in the same bay, but the likely source could not be identified for most cases and might have been staff members, other patients or visitors with unrecognised infection. There was also evidence of high infection rates in healthcare workers in the same hospital: a cohort of 181 healthcare workers enrolled in late March and early April found 45 per cent were antibody positive by one-month follow-up.”