Development and Delivery of a Real-time Hospital-onset COVID-19 Surveillance System Using Network Analysis.

Background: Understanding nosocomial acquisition, outbreaks, and transmission chains in real time will be fundamental to ensuring infection-prevention measures are effective in controlling coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in healthcare. We report the design and implementation of a hospital-onset COVID-19 infection (HOCI) surveillance system for an acute healthcare setting to target prevention interventions.

Methods: The study took place in a large teaching hospital group in London, United Kingdom.