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Abstract

Elderly care facilities have become a major focus of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) control. Here, we describe an outbreak of COVID-19 in a nursing home in Germany from 8 March to 4 May 2020 (58 days), and the effect of an intervention of general screening and cohort isolation. COVID-19 cases among residents and staff were recorded on a daily basis from the first positive SARS-CoV-2 test from a resident on 8 March 2020, until 4 May 2020 when the last staff member was classified COVID-19 negative. Eighty of 160 residents (50%) and 37 of 135 staff members (27%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Twenty-seven of the 80 residents were asymptomatic but tested positive during the first general screening. Cohort isolation of SARS-CoV-2 positive residents by reorganising the facility proved to be a major effort. After the intervention, four further asymptomatic residents tested positive in follow-up screenings within a period of 6 days, and were possibly infected prior to the intervention. Thereafter, no further infections were recorded among residents. The described outbreak was controlled by implementing general screening and rigorous cohort isolation, providing a blueprint for similar facilities.

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/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.1.2001365
2021-01-07
2024-12-21
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.1.2001365
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Control of a COVID-19 outbreak in a nursing home by general screening and cohort isolation in Germany, March to May 2020
<p class="citation"> <span>Citation style for this article:</span> <span class="meta-value authors"> <a href="/search?value1=Manuel+Krone&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Krone Manuel</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Annette+Noffz&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Noffz Annette</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Elisabeth+Richter&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Richter Elisabeth</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Ulrich+Vogel&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Vogel Ulrich</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Michael+Schwab&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Schwab Michael</a></span>. Control of a COVID-19 outbreak in a nursing home by general screening and cohort isolation in Germany, March to May 2020. <a href="/content/ecdc">Euro Surveill.</a> 2021;26(1):pii=2001365. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.1.2001365" title="doi link" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.1.2001365</a> <span class="ES_Article_citation"> <span class="generated">Received</span>: 10 Jul 2020;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="generated">Accepted</span>: 19 Nov 2020 </span> </p>
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.1.2001365
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.1.2001365
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