TY - JOUR
TI - Environmental testing for SARS-CoV-2 in three tertiary-care hospitals
during the peak of the third COVID-19 wave
AU - Maltezou, Helena C.
AU - Tseroni, Maria
AU - Daflos, Charalampos and
AU - Anastassopoulou, Cleo
AU - Vasilogiannakopoulos, Antonios
AU - Daligarou,
AU - Olga
AU - Panagiotou, Maria
AU - Botsa, Evanthia
AU - Spanakis, Nikolaos
AU - and Lourida, Athanasia
AU - Tsakris, Athanasios
JO - American Journal of Infection Control
PY - 2021
VL - 49
TODO - 11
SP - 1435-1437
PB - MOSBY-ELSEVIER
SN - 0196-6553, 1527-3296
TODO - 10.1016/j.ajic.2021.08.022
TODO - SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; Environmental contamination; Hospitals; Fomites;
Inanimate surfaces; Disinfection; B; 1; 1; 7
TODO - Contamination of surfaces has been implicated in transmission of severe
acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We tested by
real-time PCR for SARS-CoV-2 contamination environmental samples from
three hospitals during the peak of the third pandemic wave. Overall, 19
of 463 (4.1%) samples tested positive: 12 of 173 (6.9%) samples from a
COVID-19 hospital, 3 of 177 (1.7%) samples from a non-COVID-19
hospital, and 4 of 113 (3.5%) samples from a pediatric hospital with
dedicated COVID-19 clinics. Most positive samples originated from
emergency departments (EDs) (47.3%) and the intensive care units (ICUs)
(26.3%) of the COVID-19 hospital. Positive samples belonged almost
exclusively (18/19) to the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 cluster, that
might explain environmental contamination at this stage of the pandemic.
The frequency and efficiency of disinfection in high-risk patient areas,
such as EDs and ICUs, should be reinforced, especially during this
period where highly transmissible variants of concern are widespread.
(c) 2021 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and
Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ER -