Implementation of a Triage Protocol Outside the Hospital Setting for Timely Referral During the COVID-19 Second Wave in Chennai, India.

India experienced a surge in COVID-19 cases during the second wave in the period of April-June 2021. A rapid rise in cases posed challenges to triaging patients in hospital settings. Chennai, the fourth largest metropolitan city in India with an 8 million population, reported 7564 COVID-19 cases on May 12, 2021, nearly 3 times higher than the number of cases in the peak of COVID-19 in 2020.

SARS-CoV-2 cluster among security guards, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, June-July 2020.

Congregate work settings are at increased risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission and predispose to super spreader events. We investigated a COVID-19 outbreak among security guards to identify the risk factors and propose recommendations. We defined a COVID-19 case as a laboratory-confirmed reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction-positive case.